Turkey Keen to Increase Trade with Iraq: OfficialTurkey hopes to increase its trade ties with Iraq to the pre-1990 level of an annual US$2.5 billion, visiting Turkish Trade Secretary Kurshad Tuzman said Tuesday.Tuzman voiced the hope during a meeting with Iraqi Trade Minister Mohammad Mehdi Salah on Tuesday, the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported. Due to the decade-old U.N. sanctions on Iraq, Turkey's trade with Iraq stood at only 900 million dollars since the United Nations oil-for-food program was put into effect in late 1996, Tuzman was quoted by the INA as saying. Iraq has been under the sanctions since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait and the oil-for-food deal allows Iraq to sell oil in return for imports of food, medicine and other basic necessities. "The current trade dealings with Iraq do not represent the capacities of both countries," Tuzman said, adding that Turkey has asked the UN permission to implement Article 50 of the UN Charter. The UN provision allows countries economically affected by UN sanctions to keep trade and economic ties with the sanctions-stricken nation as an exception to the sanctions. For his part, Salah noted that the sanctions have cost Turkey more than 30 billion dollars and expressed keenness to boost trade with Ankara. Turkey, whose ties with Iraq have been frosty since the 1991 Gulf War, in which Turkey joined the U.S.-led multi-national force that ejected Iraqi troops out of Kuwait, has improved relations with the oil-rich neighbor. Turkey upgraded its diplomatic ties with Iraq in January, appointing an ambassador to Baghdad. |
| People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/ |