Southeast Anatolian Cereals, Pulses, Oil Seeds and Products Exporters' Association, which carries out more than half of Türkiye's cereal exports to Iraq, organized a 3-day Iraq program with domestic and international contacts to improve trade cooperation between the two countries. The Chairman of the Association, Celal Kadooğlu and the Board Members visited Ali Tatar, the Governor of Dohuk, Şükrü Cemil Nuri, the Chairman of Dohuk Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Hamid Ali İbrahim, the Administrative Officer of Ibrahim Halil Border Gate.
Stating that the region will be a center of attraction with the Development Road Project, which is considered as the new Silk Road that will connect Türkiye to the Persian Gulf, Kadooğlu held a press conference with Şükrü Cemil Nuri, Chairman of Duhok Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In the meeting, which attracted great attention from the Iraqi media, Kadooğlu stated that they visited Iraq in order to exchange ideas about the increasing customs taxes and the problems experienced at the customs gates and to improve mutual relations and stated the following:
“We can understand the increase in taxes on products produced in Iraq because each country has a duty to protect its own domestic producers. However, increasing taxes on products that are not produced weakens our competitiveness and reduces our trade potential. We expect understanding and solutions on this issue. Since Iraq is our most important trade partner in the region, we attach great importance to the development of mutual relations for the future of our country and the regional economy. In this context, we think that our visit to Iraq was successful and productive. Our delegation was very pleased that the Iraqi senior officials we met during our visit expressed the positive reflections of our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's visit to Iraq. With the visit of our President to Iraq, the environment of trust between the two countries has been further strengthened and there is great hope for the future.”
Thanking the southeastern exporters for their visit, Şükrü Cemil Nuri, Chairman of Duhok Chamber of Commerce and Industry, stated that customs duties and some import bans are applied in order to develop domestic production in Iraq and said, “We will of course take into account the issues you have raised. If there are problems in our commercial relations, we want to solve them and improve relations.”
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