Iraq’s Ministry of Trade reported three separate bilateral trade engagements on 10 September 2026. It joined a preparatory meeting hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the EU mission on trade and investment cooperation, covering proposals to develop trade and investment relations, support the private sector, improve access for Iraqi products to European markets and attract foreign investment. It agreed with an Armenian delegation in Baghdad to establish an Iraqi-Armenian Business Council, with an exchange of trade delegations, joint investment conferences and simplified procedures to follow. And Trade Minister Mustafa Nizar Jumaa met Egypt’s Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade, Mohamed Farid Saleh, on the margins of the 118th ordinary session of the Arab League’s Economic and Social Council, to discuss streamlining land freight procedures and a possible “Made in Egypt” exhibition in Baghdad.
For a European company, the EU item sits differently from the other two, and the difference is worth understanding before anyone waits on the outcome of a meeting.
The instrument already exists
The EU-Iraq Partnership and Cooperation Agreement was signed on 11 May 2012 and entered into force on 16 August 2018. It was the first contractual relationship between the European Union and Iraq. It carries a substantial trade title built on General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 principles, including most favoured nation treatment and national treatment, along with provisions aimed at market access in public procurement, services, establishment and investment, and a dispute settlement mechanism modelled on the WTO with binding panel rulings and compliance procedures behind it.
So the framework a preparatory meeting might be thought to be building is, in significant part, already in force.
Two things it does not do
First, it binds states, not companies. The parties are the European Union, its member states and the Republic of Iraq. A European exporter that meets a discriminatory customs classification, a licensing refusal or an exclusion from a tender cannot bring a claim under the Agreement itself. What it can do is build a record good enough for a member state or the Commission to act on: the decision, the stated reason, the comparator treatment, the correspondence, captured at the time the decision is made rather than reconstructed a year later. Very few companies do this, and the record is usually the reason nothing can be pursued.
Second, Iraq is not a member of the World Trade Organization. It has held observer status since 2004, and its accession remains in working party negotiations. In July 2026 the Ministry of Trade reported that its delegation met the WTO deputy director-general, the chair of the working party on Iraq’s accession and the head of the accessions division in Geneva, and that discussions covered technical files and preparation for the fourth negotiating round. Accession is progressing, but it has not happened. WTO disciplines therefore do not run generally in Iraq, and contracts, customs positions, import licensing assumptions and local content expectations should not be drafted as though they do.
The practical point
A business council, a trade expo and a preparatory meeting are useful. None of them is the instrument that determines how your goods clear customs, whether your entity may hold the licence it needs, or what happens if a tender excludes you. That comes from Iraqi law, from the terms you actually sign, and, for European companies, from a treaty that has been sitting in force for eight years.
Iraq Gate Legal Consulting advises foreign companies and investors on market entry, licensing, customs and regulatory compliance in Iraq. Book a consultation.
Sources
- EUR-Lex, summary of the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and Iraq; European Parliamentary Research Service note on the Agreement.
- Iraq Business News, “Iraqi WTO Accession Talks in Geneva,” 21 July 2026, sourced to the Iraqi Ministry of Trade. WTO accession status page for Iraq.
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