Turkish- Iraqi trade exchange

A Turkish official trade delegation arrived in Baghdad on Tuesday including 400 businessmen representing more than 150 of the major Turkish industrial, trade, foodstuffs, medical, agricultural, electrical and communication companies with the aim of revitalizing economic relations between the two countries.

Iraqi official sides said that the Turkish minister of state for economic affairs Korsad Touzman expressed his conviction that the volume of trade exchange between Turkey and Iraq does not reflect the available potentials in the two countries. He stressed that developing of economic and trade relations and upgrading the level of trade exchange do not serve the interests and benefits of both Iraq and Turkey but also serve the needed stability in the region.

The Turkish minister also expressed hope that trade exchange with Iraq will exceed USD 2.5 billion which was the volume of trade exchange between the two countries before the year 1990. He explained that his country has so far lost $ 40 billion during the past phase because of loosing the Iraqi market. He stressed that losses continue and expected it at the meantime to have reached 60 to 80 billion USD.