OREANDA-NEWS. July 30, 2013. Ukraine pays great importance to the development of effective trade relations with Iraq, said Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine Igor Prasolov during a meeting with the Minister of Trade of the Republic of Iraq Khairullah Hassan Babakir.

The Minister said that trade turnover between the two countries from year to year by the results of 2012 reached a record USD 872.5 million.

Igor Prasolov noted that the Iraqi market is interesting primarily for domestic iron and steel enterprises. Moreover, in his view, the work on wining over Ukrainian companies of machinery-producing industry to implementation of projects in Iraq must be continued. Domestic chemical industry also has a lot to offer the Iraqi market.

Igor Prasolov, assessing the prospects of economic relations between the two countries, marked the importance of regional cooperation too.

"We are also ready to sign an interagency agreement on cooperation in the field of standardization, metrology and conformity assessment," Igor Prasolov said.

In turn, the Minister of Trade of the Republic of Iraq Khairullah Hassan Babakir, said that meetings with representatives of Ukrainian government and business, held on this week, were very helpful.

He also noted that today Iraq is ready to invest a significant amount of money in the economic recovery.

As for features to enhance trade between the two countries, he stressed on that today most of Ukrainian products come on market of Iraq through intermediaries so it would be very useful to discuss the possibility for direct deliveries of goods.