Iraqi-Jordan Trade Contacts on Priority, Experts

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Economic specialist agreed that the visit of the Jordanian Prime Minister Ma’rouf Al-Bahkeet and his accompanying delegation to Iraq came for economic goals, mostly to increase Iraqi preferential oil supplies to Jordan.   Bakheet arrived Wednesday on an official visit accompanied by a high ranking delegation, to be his first visit since appointment as PM.   Sources informed IraqiNews.com that reviewing the personalities accompanying the delegation, “we find economic officials from the private and public sectors, aiming to conduct talks for enhancing trade exchange, in addition to questions related to investment and transport”.   The sources added that the main topics shall be connected with developing oil supply agreement between the two countries.   “Iraq used to export 10 thousand b/d , then 30 thousand b/d. It is expected that the talks will tackle payment procedures and quantities to be exported to Jordan within the strategic agreements signed between the two countries”, the sources added.   On the other hand, the Jordanian industrial sector has keen interest in the Iraqi market , which is regarded one of the main markets to the Jordanian economy.   Member of the National Alliance MP Abudul Hadi Al-Hassani, Deputy Chairman of Oil and Energy Commission, declared that ” the visit of the Jordanian delegation, in its different economic and political dimensions, came in time, because Iraq is living in a state of openness on the Arab and international political and economic milieu in order to build positive relations with its neighbors, because Jordan is most of the regional countries have an open access to the world, which results in better trade and economic relations for Iraq“.   Hassani added to IraqiNews.com that “this high ranking visit comes at a time Iraq is living in a state of economic openness, which needs to open all neighborly vents for economic reasons”. He pointed out that “Jordan was the lung for Iraqi economy during economic sanction, which gave it a remarkable status in the Iraqi market”. Hassani added that “the development of Jordanian industry will help rehabilitation of the Iraqi private sector and the return of Iraqi industry to the economic front”.   He expressed his hope that this visit “will raise the volume of trade with expectation that a number of bilateral agreements will be signed for developing relations between the two countries”.   On the other side, economic expert Abdul Razzak Sadiq disclosed that “most of the foreign delegation are coming for economic reasons, they have political intentions, because Iraq is developing which makes him a promising chance for all countries”.   He added that ” most of the big delegations had economic gains that will be reflected on the volume of trade with Iraq“.   As regards the Jordanian PM visit, he described it as “profitable because it carries assurance to world countries of the importance of Iraqi investments and trade contact”.   Sadiq added that the trade volume for the last year reached to 1.3 billion dollars, as announced by the Jordanian side.    “Trade exchange reached to 1.1 billion dollars and oil purchases reached to 200 million dollars”, he added.   Sadiq concluded that Jordan needs Iraqi oil, which is sold with preferential prices, so “it needs enhancing its relations in the oil sector”. RM  582