Trade Intensity: Iraq’s Status in the Global Market

Abstract

This paper attempts to explore the status of Iraq’s foreign trade by examining the trends of Iraq’s trade, significance of trade in the country’s economy and the trade intensity index between Iraq and major countries for the period between 2007 and 2017. This study relies on average and compound annual growth rates, trade intensity indices (TII) and regression analysis to measure the foreign trade status of Iraq. Abundant natural reserves of oil and gas serve as the engine of Iraq’s economic growth. In the last decade, Iraq’s foreign trade has increased from about US$ 47 billion in 2007 to about US$ 98 billion in 2017. This study demonstrates a significant increase in Iraq’s trade with countries like USA, China, Turkey and India. Although Iraq’s exports are much higher than imports, there has been a decline in the volume of exports during the study period, while imports have increased impressively