Syria taking more of Jordanian - Iraqi border trade

Syrian businessmen trying to sell goods to Iraq are finding better trading opportunities than their competitors from other countries, traders said on August 6.

Syrian traders announced that most of Iraq’s border trade would shift from Jordan, Iraq’s biggest trading partner since the 1991 Gulf war, to Syria.

Hussein Ghoneim, a Syrian businessman visiting Baghdad, said "I do not want to say that opening the Iraqi Syrian border would impede trade between Iraq and Jordan, but things are going in that direction, I am afraid."

The Syrian export drive has been helped by the two countries' decision a few weeks ago to reopen their borders for trade. The borders had been closed since 1980, when ties were cut as Damascus sided with Iran in the 1980-88 Iraqi-Iran war.