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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iran’s trade relations with Iraq has improved since March, and Tehran expects to export over $9 billion worth of goods to its neighbor by March next year, the head of Iran and Iraq’s Joint Chamber of Commerce told Iranian media on Saturday.
“Iran’s trade situation with Iraq has improved with the removal of obstacles such as the coronavirus, although the election issue in Iraq is not yet settled, but in general, our economic and trade relations with the country have improved,” Yahya al-Ishaq told Iran’s semi-official Fars News.
Ishaq said that the accurate figures are yet to be announced, however Tehran has had relatively good growth in exports to Iraq since the start of the Persian year in March.
Iraq’s main purchases from Iran are agricultural products, engineering services, construction materials, and energy, such as electricity and natural gas. Baghdad has received waivers from Washington allowing it to buy Iranian electricity and natural gas.
Iran’s director general of customs in April announced that Iraq was the largest importer of Iranian products since March 2021, importing $8.9 billion worth of goods, marking a 21 percent increase in Iranian exports to Iraq.
Ishaq added that they expect their exports to Iraq to reach over $9 billion by March next year, adding that the country’s imports from Iraq has also increased to around $1.5 billion.
In 2021, Iran said they had exported $11 billion worth of food and agricultural products to Iraq in five years. In 2019, Iraq accounted for around $9 billion of Iran’s $12.5 billion in exports.
The devastating economic impact of the coronavirus dealt a significant blow to trade volume between Iraq and Iran in 2020.
As cases of the infection began to seep into Iraq - many of which among people who had returned from Iran - Baghdad began restricting travel, shutting its five main border crossings with its eastern neighbor in mid-March 2020.
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