KUWAIT, 24 September 2003 — Wealthy Kuwait’s appetite for flashy new cars has always kept its scrap yards busy with motorists routinely dumping less fashionable models before snapping up the latest Mercedes, BMW or Lexus.
But now Kuwait’s scrap heaps are empty, thanks to motorists in impoverished neighboring Iraq, who are willing cough up good money for even rusting hulks that no self-respecting Kuwaiti would be seen dead in.
“Kuwait is now almost empty of old cars,” said Jassem Al-Fadhli, a used-car dealer, dressed in a traditional white robe and Arab headdress.
Iraqis, whose oil reserves are much larger than those of Kuwait, were once able to afford gleaming new Toyotas and Chryslers themselves.
But after 12 years of United Nations sanctions and a US led-invasion that toppled the government of Saddam Hussein, most Iraqis can afford to look no further than the scrap heaps of their old foes.
According to official figures, Kuwaitis put 22,300 cars out of service between May and July, consigning them to junkyards, where they would normally have been scrapped and sold for parts. Since May Kuwait has exported 17,800 used cars to Iraq.
Those figures are even more remarkable given that cross border trade had been non-existent after Saddam sent his troops into Kuwait in August 1990, only to be driven out a few months later by a US-led coalition.
Used cars started to trickle across the border soon after Saddam was overthrown in April, and dealers in Kuwait have rushed to cash in even though bilateral trade ties are yet to be formalized.
“Iraq’s liberation has cleared Kuwait of scrap cars,” car dealer Talal Al-Shimmari was quoted by the local daily Al-Seyassah as saying. “If Kuwait-Iraqi relations were put on hold for 13 years, everyone knows that the reason was the deposed regime which had caused regional tension and occupied Kuwait.”
That does not mean Iraqi hostility to Kuwaitis is a thing of the past.
Kuwaiti dealers dare not venture further than the dusty Iraqi border town of Safwan, where the thriving trade has prompted many Iraqi car dealers to set up shop.
But the risks are worth it.
Kuwaiti dealer Khalil El-Enizi beamed as he arranged the sale of a battered 1985 model Toyota Crown, a particular favorite with Iraqis, over his mobile phone.
“I got $2,200 for it, which is quite enough for such an old car. It was a good deal,” Enizi said. In Kuwait he would have got no more than $1,000, he explained.
With no quality controls on imports in place since the collapse of Saddam’s government, traders can expect to find buyers across the border for almost anything as long as it has wheels.
“Certain makes are in high demand, but we can export all makes and models of cars to Iraq and we find buyers,” Al-Fadhli said.
“It is a good chance to get rid of all these exhausted, noisy cars. They burn oil and let off nasty fumes,” said one Kuwaiti waiting at the crowded traffic department in Kuwait.
Not all cars going across the border come from the scrap heap. New car dealerships in Kuwait say their business has also picked up, thanks to growing demand from Iraqi companies or Kuwait-based firms with operations in Iraq.
But the used car business is so brisk that Kuwait’s bureaucracy is sometimes overwhelmed.
“There are not enough employees to finalize our transactions,” said Ahmed Raja. “You spend the whole day waiting in long lines just to get some papers stamped.”
The car trade is also a welcome boost to Kuwait’s economy, which stagnated in the run-up to the war on Iraq.
Kuwaitis hope used cars are just the start of potentially lucrative trade ties. Kuwait now is the main supplier of cellular phones, satellite receivers and other high-tech goods to Iraq.
Prices of satellite receivers in Kuwait shot up to their highest levels ever, traders said, as Iraqis shed the shackles of Saddam-era censorship and scrambled for news.
One salesman said he sold more receivers in June than in the previous 18 months. “Demand for such appliances in Iraq is very heavy, and that has helped us make up for our losses earlier this year,” he said.
