ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Imports to the Kurdistan Region and Iraq from the predominantly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir in Turkey have dropped 22 percent in 2019 due to Iraq’s tariff system on foreign imports, according to figures from Diyarbakir’s Chamber of Commerce.

There are tariffs on goods coming from Turkey into both the Kurdistan Region and federal parts of Iraq. The tariffs also resulted in drops in trade and frustrations among Turkish drivers last year.

The Kurdistan Region is a main importer of Turkish goods, including products made in largely Kurdish southeast Turkey. Some Turkish companies have already opened branches in the Kurdistan Region and there are good trade exchanges between the two.

There have been efforts to boost trade between Turkey and the Kurdistan Region this year.

A business delegation from the largely Kurdish-inhabited provinces of Diyarbakir and Sirnak in Turkey visited Erbil to help restore Ankara-Erbil economic and political relations in April.

“We have come here to bring both communities close to each other,” a Diyarbakir Trade and Industry Chamber told Rudaw at the time.

Relations between Erbil and Ankara were harmed in late 2017 following the Kurdistan independence referendum. However, unlike Iran, Turkey did not close its borders with the Kurdistan Region.

Iraq-Turkey trade volume stands at around $10 billion. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a press conference in March alongside his Iraqi counterpart Barham Salih that they want to expand the current trade volume further.

However, Kurdish farmers have been complaining recently that foreign imports hurting their harvest. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) banned foreign tomatoes in August in an effort to boost domestic markets.

Rudaw