Sudan supports Iraq’s accession to the World Trade Organization with a new law.
Sudan supports Iraq’s accession to the World Trade Organization with a new law.
11-16-2025
Baghdad-Mail
The Prime Minister’s financial advisor, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, praised on Sunday the Cabinet’s approval of the draft law amending the Commercial Agency Regulation Law, stressing that it supports the requirements for Iraq’s accession to the World Trade Organization and improves market efficiency by reducing prices and raising the quality of goods.
Saleh told the official agency that “the first amendment to the existing Commercial Agency Regulation Law represents an important legislative reform that enhances competitiveness, improves the quality of goods and services, and supports investment and integration into the global economy,” noting that “the amendment also contributes to building a more disciplined and equitable market, which will directly impact economic growth and consumer protection in Iraq.”
He added, “This amendment comes to address the gaps that appeared during the application of the law since 2017, whose main goal was and still is to promote and regulate commercial activity and improve the business environment in Iraq.”
He explained that “the motives for the amendment are directed towards important axes, including addressing cases of actual monopoly by some commercial agencies in key sectors such as sensitive devices, consumer goods, and others, as well as the need for more precise regulation of the relationship between foreign companies and local agents in accordance with international standards, with the necessity of raising the level of transparency and disclosure in registering agencies and documenting their contracts,” noting that “all the contents of the amendment are consistent with the need to protect the consumer from substandard goods and weak after-sales services, as we have explained, which drain the consumer and the national economy.”
He stated that “the amendment comes to support the state’s direction towards improving the investment environment and attracting global companies directly to the national market.”
He explained that “the most prominent aspects of the amendment are based on opening the field to greater competition between agents and preventing disguised monopolies, tightening registration and auditing procedures for commercial agencies through the Ministry of Trade, in addition to clearer and stronger regulation of contracts between the local agent and the foreign supplier, which enhances the rights of both parties, and obliging agents to higher standards of quality, warranty and maintenance, as well as strengthening governmental and tax oversight and digitization in agency procedures, and providing an important entry point towards building a competitive and fair market away from the dominance of closed agencies, and supporting the requirements for the country’s accession to the World Trade Organization by enhancing transparency and competition.”
He added that “amending the law also leads to strengthening national supply chains, encouraging local manufacturing, and establishing a stable and attractive legal environment for foreign direct investment that is consistent with global quality standards in developing the business environment, which is the focus of the World Bank and international trade and economic organizations.” He pointed out that “the implications of amending the existing Commercial Agencies Regulation Law are embodied in providing important economic pathways, foremost among them improving market efficiency by reducing prices and raising the quality of goods as a result of increased competition, in addition to attracting new international companies and brands to the Iraqi market, reducing the restrictions imposed by monopolies, stimulating local investment in the fields of distribution, logistics and commercial services, in addition to protecting the consumer and providing better products with more committed after-sales services, and increasing state revenues by controlling tax compliance and regulating import operations.”
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