Baghdad: we have imported one billion dollar of Saudi commodities

In the light of the developed Iraqi trade relations with several Arab states, the Iraqi trade minister Muhammad Mahdi Saleh said on Tuesday that his country imported commodities at a cost of USD one billion from Saudi Arabia in the course of the oil-for-food program and also out of this program.

Saleh added that the volume of trade exchange with the United Arab Emirates reached USD 5 billion since the beginning of the implementation of the oil-for-food program in December 1996.

Saleh stressed that his country calls for lifting the siege imposed on it, noting that the oil-for-food program aims at covering the spending of the UN.

He said that his country has exported oil amounts of a cost of USD 50 billion during the past five years, noting that Iraq only got USD 16 billion, with USD 3 billion annually and this means USD 10 for each Iraqi citizen each month.