The free trade area (FTA) agreement signed last year between Iraq and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has recently entered into force, following its ratification by Emirati officials, reported Iraq’s Ministry of Trade.
The UAE is Iraq’s third largest trade partner with bilateral trade volume standing at some $2.6 billion, under the framework of the United Nations (UN) oil-for-food program. The humanitarian program, which was launched in 1996, allows Iraq to sell oil and use part of the revenues to buy food, medicine and other essentials to offset the impact of the sanctions imposed on Baghdad for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
Iraq, seeking to break out of its isolation, has signed free trade agreements over the past two years with several other Arab countries—Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen. In June 2001, the country also signed a four-way free trade agreement with Syria, Egypt and Libya. — (menareport.com).
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
