Whereas the Iraqi Prime Minister Heidar Al-Abadi has announced during a press conference that the country will follow sanctions against Iran, despite its general opposition to the sanctions strategy, the total Iranian exports to Iraq has passed the 2.5 bUS$ in the current year.
Based on the current news, the Iraqi prime minister has said: “We consider sanctions against Iran a strategic and inaccurate error, but we will implement them to defend the interests of our people”. He also added: “We do not have a relationship with these sanctions, and we do not support it, but we will remain committed to it. ” Due to this amazing opinion (after 20 years of Iran’s supports of Iraq) PIMI has decided to have a brief about Iran-Iraq economical relations and what has happened after the Trump’s decision.
The president of the United States warned Iran’s trade partners on Tuesday to choose between Iran and the United States. Iraq is one of those countries with 1.458 Km, boundaries with Iran. Apart from import/export facts and needs, the main and one of the highest revenues of Iraq comes from Iran by thousands of pilgrims that visit Iraq due to several religious points and a huge currency cash flow from Iran to Iraq.
Though, in 2017 Iraq imported $ 6.6 billion of consumer goods like tomatoes, blankets, and cars from Iran, but recently a senior Iraqi official told to AFP: “Because of US sanctions, we have stopped importing cars from Iran.” However, the Iraqi government official added that “the Iraqi government is asking the United States for some sanction relief in order to import some of the necessary parts for car production and maintenance of the previously imported cars. Meanwhile, all car production lines in Iraq have been stopped, and 5,000 workers in this area do not know if their jobs will be maintained.
At the other side, Iran has exports 2.5 billion US$ to Iraq, and Plastics goods and materials are one of the products that have the most exports in this 2.5 b export bill. With regard to the type of protection of the borders and forces located on the borders, and basically the type of borders, especially in the Diyala and Kurdistan-controlled areas of the Patriotic Union, it does not seem to be a complicated problem in our dealings with Iraq. But in this regard, only the money transfer will be a bit difficult, and Tehran may again use the methods previously used to circumvent the sanctions in Dubai, Istanbul and Erbil.
The Iraqi government already has announced that Iran received $ 2.76 billion worth of goods during the first quarter of this year, which was the third largest export destination in the country, despite giving up US sanctions on Iran.
▫ To consider the latest customs statistics of Iran’s foreign trade, during the first four months of this year, after the countries of China and the UAE, Iraq received 4,762,000 tons of goods worth 2 billion and 521.55 million dollars that keeps the neighbouring country at the third place of the target markets for Iranian exports.
The most exportable goods to Iraq include plastics materials and goods, industrial goods, crops, dairy products, tile and ceramic construction products, household cleaning products, sweets and chocolates, tomato paste and auto parts.
SOURCE: @PIMetelegram
