Shafaq News- Baghdad/ Damascus
Iraq and Syria agreed on eight measures to streamline cross-border trade and passenger traffic, including electronic customs-data exchange, as the Damascus Chamber of Commerce forecast the link could boost bilateral trade by 30–50% in its first year.
Iraq’s Border Ports Authority said on Sunday that the agreement was reached during a video meeting involving senior border, customs and transport officials from both countries.
The measures include direct communication between border crossings, electronic exchange of customs data, reciprocal market access, dedicated commercial and passenger lanes, special routes for fuel tankers and trucks carrying perishable goods, and streamlined transit procedures.
The two sides also agreed to resume passenger traffic through Al-Waleed once passport halls and designated roads are completed, expected early next year. Passenger movement will meanwhile continue through Rabia and Al-Qaim.
Rabia will also be expanded by 100 dunams to accommodate more trucks and tankers.
Iraq has already rolled out UNCTAD’s ASYCUDAWorld system across its customs network, replacing manual declarations with electronic processing.
Trade growth forecast
Louay Al-Ashqar, a board member of the Damascus Chamber of Commerce, told Shafaq News that electronic customs integration could increase Iraq-Syria trade by 30–50% during its first 12 months.
He said the estimate was partly based on Rabia’s reopening, which contributed to a 20% increase in trade.
Al-Ashqar projected bilateral trade could reach $300–500 million by 2027 before eventually returning to around $1 billion, which he said was the pre-2011 level. The figures exclude potential revenues from new oil-transit activity.
He said digital customs processing and electronic verification of certificates of origin and invoices could cut truck waiting times from two to four days to as little as six hours.
Read more: Syria-Iraq trade recovers as energy transit expands
That could reduce road-shipping costs by 15–25%, while lowering prices for fresh goods by an estimated 8–12% and industrial and pharmaceutical products by 5–7% in Damascus and Baghdad, he said.
Agriculture and food industries would be among the main beneficiaries, followed by pharmaceuticals, detergents, plastics and construction materials. Energy and transit trade could also benefit from easier movement of Iraqi oil tankers toward the Syrian coast.
Al-Ashqar said procedural obstacles, rather than weak demand, were the main constraint on Syrian exports to Iraq.
He added that Iraq plans to make electronic verification through the ECOR platform mandatory from October 7, 2026, and said linking the two countries’ customs systems would help companies comply.
Transit and logistics
Al-Ashqar projected that transit traffic between the Gulf, Turkiye and Europe through the Al-Tanf corridor could double as capacity expands and the 215-kilometer Al-Tanf–Al-Busayri road is rehabilitated at an estimated cost of $150 million.
He estimated private-sector logistics investment could reach $50–80 million over two years, covering freight yards, refrigerated transport and storage, truck fleets, customs-clearance companies and bonded warehouses.
Faster clearance could allow trucks to make four or five trips a month instead of two, while saving exporters and importers an estimated $120–180 per shipment, or about 10–15% of the average shipment cost.