Turkish - Iraqi Business Council established on 2001.

Dr. Zeynel Abidin ERDEM is the member of the Board.

Turkish-Iraqi Business Council is aiming to improve the deteriorated bilateral trade and economic relations between the two countries after the Gulf War period due to the UN sanctions. The most important objective of the Business Council is to increase the participation of the Turkish Companies to the bids under the “Oil for Food Programme” applied by UN. In this framework, long term strategies are planned to target the possible post sanctions period in the near future.

TURKISH-IRAQI COMMERCIAL AND ECONOMIC RELATIONS

Before Gulf war, the trade volume between Iraq and Turkey had been around 2.5 billion dollars. In August 1990, the Security Council had imposed comprehensive sanctions on Iraq. Concerned about the extended suffering of the civilian population as a result of the sanctions, the UN Security Council passed resolution 986 in April 1995 with an "oil for food" formula. In May 1996, after extended negotiations with the UN Secretariat, Iraq signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) setting out arrangements for the implementation of SCR 986.

As of the end of 1996, with MOU program, trade volume between Iraq and Turkey increased 300% in comparison with the previous year. Major export items are food, health products, electrical equipments, construction materials, and railroad materials.

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