Trade between Iran and Iraq is expected to reach $4 billion in 2008 as economic cooperation between the neighboring states continues to rise.

Iran exported nearly $2.8 billion worth of goods to Iraq during 2007, of which approximately $1 billion was imported via the Iraqi Kurdistan region.
On Sunday, the prime minister of Iraq’s Kurdistan regional government, Nechirvan Barzani, arrived in Tehran for a conference on Iraqi reconstruction and to meet with Saeed Jalili, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
“Iraq needs Iran’s help to reconstruct and develop the country. We seek to increase Iranian investments in Iraq,” Barzani said at the conference.
Falah Mustafa, an Iraqi Kurd official in charge of foreign relations, said that Tehran-Kurdistan relations will be the main focus in the talks between the two sides during the conference as well as calls on Iranian businessmen to invest further in Kurdistan.
Hassan Danaeifar, the secretary of the special taskforce for development of Iran-Iraq trade, also said that the two Muslim states have launched seven border points with trade terminals and constructed several roads during past two years to facilitate trade exchanges between the two oil-rich nations.
Iraq imports a wide variety of goods from Iran including construction material, medicine, fruits and spices, fish, air conditioners, office furniture, carpets and apparel.
During his visit to Baghdad in March, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad offered a $1 billion loan to Iraq for projects that would be handled by Iranian firms.
Earlier Iranian banks agreed to facilitate the opening of letters of credit for Iraqi tradesmen in Iran, laying down incentives for bolstering further economic cooperation.
(Source: Press TV)