On the way to legislation, the law to cancel Jordan’s privileges is gradually progressing in parliament
On the way to legislation, the law to cancel Jordan’s privileges is gradually progressing in parliament
2024-11-30
The proposed law to “cancel Jordan’s privileges in Iraq” is making its way to legislation. Since the beginning of October, a number of representatives have been working to legislate this law in parliament to be binding on the government. This is due to Jordan’s position on the ongoing war in the region, facilitating support for the Zionist entity, and repelling Iranian strikes against the entity.
Hadi Al-Salami, a member of the Integrity Committee, said in an interview with Al-Sumaria TV that the Parliament Presidency referred the law to cancel privileges with Jordan to the Foreign Relations Committee and the Legal Committee to consult the opinions of the two committees, noting that “the representatives are proceeding with the issue of canceling Jordan’s privileges after it began to embrace and provide logistical support to the Zionist entity, especially in facilitating the attack on security forces in Iraq.”
He pointed out that “the cancellation of these privileges will work to transfer their funds to support hospitals and weak Iraqi groups, including cancer patients,” stressing “collecting the signatures of more than 50 representatives to proceed with the legislation of this law, which will focus on canceling the privileges granted to Jordan, such as customs, taxes, and selling oil at prices lower than the market.”
In a report by Al-Sumaria TV, he reviewed the nature of the facilities and privileges that Jordan receives from Iraq, where the most important privilege is the oil exported to Jordan by Iraq, which ranges between 10 and 15 thousand barrels per day at a discount of $16 per barrel from the price of Brent, and this costs Iraq about $5 million per month.
But from an economic perspective, the oil exported to Jordan is Kirkuk oil, which is of lower quality than Brent crude and even lower quality than Basra crude, which makes its price naturally lower than Brent crude. If it is not exported to Jordan, it cannot be sold at the price of Brent crude, because Iraq’s crude is basically lower than Brent crude, and Iraq sells Basra oil to all parts of the world at a price lower than Brent crude by about $3.
The discount also includes Jordan’s responsibility for transporting the crude oil, as Iraq does not transport Kirkuk’s oil but rather deposits it in the Kirkuk warehouse, and Jordanian and Iraqi tankers come and transport it, and the cost of transport is at Jordan’s expense, unlike what Iraq does in transporting its oil through ports, where it rents ships and transports it to territorial waters to be loaded later by marine tankers.
In terms of trade, Iraq imports about one billion dollars from Jordan annually, making it the leading country importing from Jordan. Iraq has also granted Jordan customs exemptions for more than 350 goods since 2017.
burathanews.com
