Iran reports renewed increase in exports to Iraq

Iranian trade authorities say exports to neighboring Iraq picked up in November after months of dropping sales.

Deputy Iranian trade minister Alireza Peymanpak said on Tuesday that exports to Iraq had topped 4.305 billion in the eight calendar months to November 21, up 4% against the same period last year.

Peymanpak, who serves as head of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (PMO), said the government body brought in measures in recent months to reverse a declining trend in Iranian exports to Iraq that had been caused by tighter American restrictions on banking relations between the two countries.

He said, however, that total Iranian exports to Iraq in March-November, including sales of natural gas to the Arab country, had fallen by 24% year on year to reach $4.665 billion.

The official said Iranian gas exports to Iraq had declined by around $1.6 billion compared with the eight months to late November 2021.

The PMO chief said Iran had supplied increased shipments of steel products, urea, transformers and plastic products to Iraq over the March-November period.

Iraq is Iran’s second largest export customer after China. The two neighboring countries aim to reach an annual trade target of nearly $20 billion in the upcoming years.

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