Iraq and Türkiye set a $30 billion target for bilateral trade

Iraq and Türkiye have set a target of raising bilateral trade to $30 billion. Arab News reported on Wednesday 29 July 2026 that the target was set out after Iraqi Trade Minister Mustafa Nizar Al-Ani met his Turkish counterpart Omer Bolat in Ankara, on the sidelines of Prime Minister Ali Falih Al-Zaidi's official visit to Türkiye. Trade between the two countries currently stands at about $17 billion, having climbed as high as $24 billion after the Covid pandemic and during a period of elevated energy prices.

Bolat said Iraq is Türkiye's fifth-largest trading partner and that Turkish contractors have completed 1,157 projects worth $40 billion there, making Iraq their third-largest overseas market. He called integrating the Ibrahim Khalil customs gate into the ASYCUDA customs system essential to speeding up trade flows.

Bolat also called for the Kirkuk to Ceyhan oil pipeline to run at full capacity, for a new pipeline from Basra to the Ceyhan terminal, and for continued progress on the Development Road project, which would link Iraq's Grand Faw Port to Europe via Türkiye. He said a transit visa arrangement between Türkiye and Saudi Arabia, in effect since 15 April, has opened trade routes through Iraq to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the wider Persian Gulf. The third Iraq-Türkiye Joint Economic and Trade Committee is expected in the final quarter of this year.