Jordanian businessmen who have been on a visit to Iraq said that Baghdad had reiterated that it would not trade with Jordanian firms that maintain commercial ties with Israel and the Palestinian National Authority, according to a report by Jordan Times.
Adnan Abul Ragheb, member of the Amman Chamber of Industry Council, said the Iraqi stand was conveyed to the Jordanian delegation during a meeting with Iraq's Minister of Trade Mohammad Mahdi Saleh.
"The Iraqi minister told us that Iraq will blacklist any Jordanian firm that trades with the Zionist enemy and the PNA," Abul Ragheb told the Jordan Times.
Sources in the delegation, who asked not to be named, said Saleh has told the delegation that it has the names of 85 Jordanian firms that trade with Israel.
The sources also told the English daily that the Iraqi position was also conveyed to a Jordanian government delegation, headed by Minister of Trade and Industry Wasif Azar and Minister of Transport Mohammad Kalaldeh, which visited Baghdad last month.
Citing official figures, the paper said that Jordan's annual losses as a result of the US spearheaded sanctions on Iraq stand at $1 billion.
Jordan imports from Iraq in the first five months of this year amounted to 67.2 percent of the Kingdom's total imports from Arab states, which stand at JD290.2 million ($409.2m), according to statistics.
Despite the UN embargo on Iraq, Jordan and Iraq have an oil and trade agreement under which the former will export up to 300 million dollars to Iraq this year in exchange for 4.8 million tons of Iraqi oil. Jordan receives half the oil free and the remainder at preferential tariffs.
Jordan has exported 843 million dollars worth of goods to Iraq between late 1996 and late 1999 under the UN-sponsored program that lets Iraq sell limited amounts of oil in exchange for food, medicine and other necessities, according to an AFP report on September 5th.
The agency said that some 50 Jordanian companies are estimated to have done business with Israel since the kingdom and the Jewish state signed a peace agreement in 1994.
The professional associations’ anti-normalization committee works as a watchdog, keeping eyes open on any Jordanian firm doing business with Israel. The committee, dominated by Islamist, has often issued statements calling for boycotting certain “normalizing” companies – Albawaba.com
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
