Iran-Iraq trade exchanges stand at $5.2 bln

The current volume of the trade exchanges between Tehran and Baghdad stands at $5.2 billion, an Iranian official announced Tuesday, expressing the hope that the amount would increase in the near future. "At present the volume of the trade exchanges between Iran and Iraq amounts to $5.2 billion which will further grow in the near future," Majid Qorbanifar, who is in charge of trade affairs with Iraq at the Iranian Trade Development Organization (TPO), said. He said that Iran has provided Iraq with $1.6 billion of engineering services in the last Iranian year (ended on March 19), and added that over $1 billion of the two countries' trade exchanges pertained to tourism and reciprocal visits of pilgrims, Iran's Fars News Agency (FNA) reported. Both sides are working on a series of plans to take wide strides in expanding their ties.