BAGHDAD — Experts in both the public and the private sectors expected Iraq to be an international free-trade area amid the increasing global variables in economics, trade and manufacturing.

Administrative agent for the Transportation Ministry Salman Bahadli told Al-Monitor, “During the past 10 years, Iraq has failed to benefit from the opportunities and expected revenue coming from proper investment in the transportation sector, especially with the emergence of mega- and large-sized projects carried out by Arab and foreign countries, which used other ways to transfer their goods via Iraq.”

Bahadli said, “The ministry studied the possibility of benefiting from the transportation sector, and thus responded to the request of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia to enter into a multimodal transportation-of-goods convention. The ministry has in fact prepared a specific law for the convention and submitted it to the Iraqi Council of Ministers. After receiving approval there on April 25, it was submitted to the Council of Representatives, which passed it a few days ago.”

Bahadli pointed out, “The convention aims to unify the legal rules applicable to the multimodal transportation of goods in the framework of one transportation process that is governed by a single contract that falls under the responsibility of the contract drafter, namely the multimodal transport contractor.”