The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) General Directorate of Customs and the Iraqi Customs Board reached a 27 point agreement in a meeting last week in Erbil, but only revealed the deal on Sunday, Samal Abdulrahman, head of KRG customs department, told Rudaw.
“In our meeting with the Iraqi customs body, we reach an agreement on 27 points concerning the question of customs. We have agreed to remove Baghdad’s three customs checkpoints put between Kirkuk-Erbil, Erbil-Sulaimani, Mosul-Duhok,” Abdulrehman said.
No details were given on what exactly the 27 points cover, nor did the official offer a timeframe for when the checkpoints would be closed.
The Iraqi Customs Board has not issued a statement on the deal.
Erbil and Baghdad have long disputed the imposition of customs points and their revenues. Baghdad has even demanded Erbil hand over the Ibrahim Khalil border crossing with Turkey.
When Kurds controlled Kirkuk, Baghdad had a customs point between Baghdad and the disputed city. Business owners often complained of being taxed twice to move freight between cities. When Iraqi forces took over the disputed city in October 2017, they imposed a series of customs borders, isolating the Region economically.
Western officials have criticized the internal checkpoints, calling for a single internal market.
“We disagree with internal customs barriers in Iraq and tell the GoI. Everyone would do better if Iraq was a single market,” Martyn Warr, the British consul-general in Erbil, tweeted earlier this week.
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