Iraq has a robust trading relationship with Iran that was worth 12B USD in 2020. The two countries have plans to increase the volume of bilateral trade to 20B USD in the near future. But as Iran’s exports to its western neighbor have increased in recent years, there has been a backlash from many Iraqis that has led to calls for boycotts of Iranian products. At the core of the issue is Baghdad’s non-oil trade deficit, which has seen foreign goods flood local markets at the expense of domestic producers.

Amwaj.media spoke with Iraqi trader Adnan Al-Obaidi about Iran’s inroads into the Iraqi economy. Obaidi is based in Baghdad’s Al-Shorja market, which is widely seen as the country’s commercial lung. “Iranian companies offer Iraqi traders a lot of facilities,” he explained, “They have begun to offer goods to Iraqis at competitive prices, as well as to provide goods on credit to Iraqi traders.”