Lebanon and Iraq claim they are inching closer to signing a free-trade agreement, but neither side is so far willing to commit to a date, report said.
Lebanon, however, may up its share of the $30 billion Iraqi market beyond the $350 million exported there so far this year, said The Daily Star.
Both sides, according to the Beirut-based paper, failed to explain the slow pace of negotiations at a time when Iraq has clinched five free-trade agreements with Arab countries, who hardly existed in the Iraqi market just a few years ago.
“Today we signed a free-trade agreement with Algeria,” Iraqi Vice-President Tariq Aziz told a Lebanese business delegation in Baghdad Wednesday.
“Why should we have any problem with signing a similar deal with Lebanon, with whom we have had a long history of trade ties?” he said.
Despite losing its number one trade partner in the wake of the 1990-91 Gulf War, Lebanon has appeared unenthusiastic to forge ahead with a free-trade agreement, which is expected to bring in over $1 billion to Syria under its own deal signed earlier this year.
Citing official figures, Lebanon’s trade with Iraq has risen from the measly $2 million made five years ago to over $750 million.
Meanwhile, over 90 Lebanese firms are participating in the two-week fair, which will open Thursday in Baghdad and host over 50 countries.
Although Lebanon recently upgraded diplomatic ties with Baghdad by appointing a Lebanese charge d’affaires, the Iraqis are waiting for the restoration of full-fledged diplomatic ties, which were severed in 1994 due to the assassination of a prominent Iraqi dissident in Beirut – Albawaba.com
