Two chambers in Iraqi Kurdistan Region have signed deals with Iranian traders for establishing offices in their respective countries and increasing trade exchange to $200 million.
Mustafa Sheikh Abdulrahman, the head of Kurdistan’s Union of Importers and Exporters, told Rudaw that a protocol signed with the Chamber of Iranian Cooperatives stipulates that the Kurdish side will open an office in Tehran and the Iranians will open theirs in Erbil.
Abdulrahman also said that a second protocol between Erbil’s Chamber of Commerce and their counterpart in the Iranian province of Hamedan would help expand trade between the two cities.
This comes as the Chamber of Cooperatives in Hamedan announced earlier this month that they had signed an agreement with the Kurdish authorities to export 56 goods and food items to the Kurdistan Region worth $56 million in 2017-18, up from $38 million the previous year. It said that the agreement will allow Hamedan to increase its export to $200 million.
Hamedan is located 500 km southeast of Erbil.
Iran is Iraqi Kurdistan Region’s second largest trade partner after Turkey, conducting $8 billion of trade in 2014.
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