BAGHDAD, 25 August — The first Saudi Arabian trade fair to be held in Iraq since the 1991 Gulf War will open here on Sept. 9 for five days, an official newspaper reported yesterday.
“The biggest Saudi companies” will be represented at the event and offer foodstuffs, electrical and medical equipment and textiles,” Al-Ittihad weekly said, quoting an official source at the Iraqi Trade Ministry.
A big Saudi trade delegation was also expected. The trade fair comes at a time when relations between Riyadh and Baghdad, cut since the war, have begun to warm.
The process began at the Arab summit in Beirut last March and has been aided by Saudi Arabia’s refusal to countenance a US-led attack on Iraq from its soil.
Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said Thursday that Baghdad would be ready to restore ties when Riyadh decided the time was right.
Saudi Arabia has encouraged its businessmen to export national products to Iraq following the regulations of the food-for-oil program approved by the United Nations.
Saudi businessmen are also allowed to export non-Saudi products to Iraq.
Saudi businessmen had received contracts worth $1.1 billion as part of the UN program.
However, the volume of trade exchange between the Kingdom and Iraq was small compared to Iraq’s trade with Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Tunisia.
Saudi-Iraq trade is expected to rise in the coming months as Baghdad may prefer to buy Saudi products in its bid to open a new chapter in bilateral relations.
Abdul Rahman Al-Jeraisy, chairman of the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry, meanwhile, told Arab News that all Saudi companies and industries have been instructed that their business with Iraq must be within the framework of the UN program and that they should not contact the United Nations directly.
“All their communications must be through official Saudi channels, especially the Export Promotion Center,” Al-Jeraisy said.
Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Zamil, chairman of the Export Promotion Center, had earlier called for concluding a free-trade agreement with Iraq to promote inter-Arab trade.
Iraq has already signed free-trade accords with Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
Iraq and the United Nations have reached an agreement on the reopening of the main Saudi-Iraqi border crossing at Arar, which remained closed since the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
The opening of Arar post will cut down on transportation cost for Saudi businessmen.
The border post was due to have opened for trade a few months ago, but Iraq and the United Nations, which supervises all imports into the sanctions-hit country, disagreed on the deployment of monitors.
Over the past 12 years the border post was opened only occasionally to allow Iraqi pilgrims into the Kingdom.
