Khosravi crossing at the border between Iran and Iraq has been reopened for trade after it was closed by the authorities on the Iraqi side about five months ago due to the spread of the new coronavirus.
"Following negotiations between Iranian authorities and their Iraqi counterparts, the neighboring country reopened Manzarieh crossing on Thursday," Spokesman of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration Rouhollah Latifi was quoted as saying by IRNA.
Iranian commodities can now be transported to Iraq through the border crossing, which links Iran’s Kermanshah Province to Iraq’s Diyala Governorate, he added.
Latifi noted that no restrictions have been placed on the gateway’s commercial exchanges.
Mehran crossing, another major crossing between the two countries, was reopened in early June for the trade between Iran and Iraq to be resumed.
The border between Iran and the Iraqi Kurdistan was opened even sooner in early May, weeks after it was shut to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Iraq further partially reopened its southern Shalamcheh border crossing with Iran on 7 July to allow food products in. The border was closed for more than three months.
The map shows main border crossings between Iran and Iraq.
A total of 5 million tons of non-oil goods worth more than $1.45 billion were exported from Iran to Iraq during the first quarter of the current Iranian year (March 20-June 20), according to Hamid Hosseini, the secretary-general of Iran-Iraq Joint Chamber of Commerce.
Iran’s exports to Iraq registered a 40% decline in tonnage and a 38.3% decrease in value compared with the similar period of last year.
According to the Islamic Republic of Iran's Customs Administration, Iran's overall non-oil exports stood at 21.92 million tons worth of $6.36 billion in spring.
This means Iraq accounted for about 22.8% of Iran's overall exports in Q1.
In a joint press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, President Hassan Rouhani said that his administration is determined to take the volume of Iran and Iraq’s annual bilateral trade to $20 million. Iraq's prime minister visited Iran on 21 July on his first foreign trip.