Exports to Iraq up 3.74% in two months — official

AMMAN — Jordan’s exports to the Iraqi market increased by 3.74 per cent during the first two months of this year, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Supply Yanal Barmawi said on Thursday.

In January alone, national exports to Iraq grew by 9.5 per cent, Barmawi said in a statement carried by the Jordan News Agency, Petra.

He added that the overall national exports to the Iraqi market amounted to JD59 million in the January-February period, compared with JD56.86 million in the same period of 2018, Petra reported.

Barmawi said the Jordanian-Iraqi agreements since the beginning of the year have helped push the growth of trade exchange by providing exemptions that extend to a range of Jordanian products and facilitating the travel of trucks between the two countries.

The ministry is operating within a comprehensive strategy to boost Jordanian exports to Iraq by following up with the Iraqi government on all matters pertaining to trade relations and encouraging the Iraqi and Jordanian private sectors to benefit from the economic accords between the two countries.

The two countries have signed a number of trade agreements, such as the exemption of 393 Jordanian commodities exported to Iraq from customs.

On the Jordanian side, the government decided to exempt Iraqi goods exported through the Aqaba Port from 75 per cent of the handling fees collected by the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority.

The most recent agreement, signed in April, was to allow transit land passage for Iraqi and Jordanian trucks, to deliver cargo not only inside the country but to their final destination.

An agreement was also signed between the government of Jordan and Iraq to transfer 10,000 barrels of crude oil bought by Jordan at international prices. The agreement came during a flurry of other proclamations on energy including an announcement by Iraq to begin technical preparations for the extension of an Iraqi oil pipeline — planned to run through the Kingdom with a capacity of 1 million barrels per day.

Officials from the two countries have discussed the establishment of a joint Jordanian-Iraqi industrial zone on the border.