Parliamentary Finance calls for urgent measures to lift restrictions on Iraqi oil imports

POSTED ON[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] BY [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

[size=52]Parliamentary Finance calls for urgent measures to lift restrictions on Iraqi oil imports[/size]

[size=45]Baghdad / Firas Adnan[/size]
[size=45]The Parliamentary Finance Committee called on the federal government to conduct negotiations with the US Treasury Department to ease the pressure on oil sales, and also called for financing real traders in dollars according to the official price in order to create a state of balance that addresses the scarcity in the markets that caused the current rise. The US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on a number of Iraqi banks, which prevented them from entering the currency auction for the central bank, and this measure led to a shortage of dollars in the market and an increase in its price.[/size]
[size=45]Despite the Central Bank taking a number of measures, they have not yet addressed the rise, which greatly affected the markets with a clear increase in prices.[/size]
[size=45]A member of the Finance Committee, Representative Mueen Al-Kazemi, said, "Controlling the dollar exchange rate needs practical measures that the government takes by financing real merchants and at the official rate."[/size]
[size=45]And Al-Kadhimi continued, "This measure would cover the markets with an abundance of dollars, in exchange for the entry of goods into Iraq, which these merchants buy in exchange for what they get in dollars."[/size]
[size=45]He pointed out, "This step is capable of addressing the previous problems that led to money laundering and smuggling of dollars under the pretext of remittances, and it also creates a balance at the same time, that would address the emergency rise at the present time."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Kazemi pointed out, "The need for the government to communicate with the United States of America in order to relieve pressure on Iraq on the issue of the dollar, which led to the failure to transfer money from oil sold on a weekly basis, as it was in the past."[/size]
[size=45]And he stated, “Iraq is receiving today half of the quantities that it used to receive in the past,” stressing that “Iraq exports daily 3.5 million barrels at an amount of $75 a barrel, and these are huge sums, half of which are withheld, which greatly affected the amount of dollar supply in the markets.” local.” Al-Kazemi concluded, "What is happening at the present time is interference in internal affairs, which we hope, through negotiation and communication with the American side, will end soon."[/size]
[size=45]Representative Sherif Suleiman believes that “the time has come for Parliament to intervene and communicate with the Central Bank in order to end the crisis of the high exchange rate of the dollar.” Suleiman continued, "The situation should not be left indefinitely," stressing that "the exchange rate is related to the livelihood of the Iraqi people and other issues of an economic nature."[/size]
[size=45]He explained, "There are some attempts by the government and the Central Bank to control the situation, but they are still below the level of ambition, and we look forward to having a role from Parliament in order to solve this crisis as soon as possible."[/size]
[size=45]For his part, Safwan Qusai, a researcher in economic affairs, stated that "the central bank's responsibility lies in controlling the parallel market."[/size]
[size=45]Qusai continued, "The window for selling the currency was controlled and governed by the US Treasury Department, and it tracks the movement of the dollar that leaves Iraq to other countries."[/size]
[size=45]And he pointed out, “This system should be in the parallel market as well, because the central bank must know who is the owner of the dinar who undertakes the process of buying dollars from the parallel market at the current price that exceeds the official price, and where what is bought goes.”[/size]
[size=45]And Qusai indicated that “the process of tracking the dollar outside the banking environment is supposed to be under strict scrutiny and control,” and he talked about “countries that have been subjected to sanctions that can use a secondary market to obtain hard currency.”[/size]
[size=45]And he continues, “One of those countries is Iran, with which the volume of trade exchange reached $8 billion over the past year,” stressing that “those sums went to Iran in unofficial ways because of the US sanctions imposed on it.”[/size]
[size=45]Qusai advised, “The Central Bank of Iraq to conduct negotiations with the US Treasury to open the window for importing goods in return for pumping them into Iranian markets through Iraq; So that the demand for cash dollars does not increase outside Iraqi banks, and the same applies to the Syrian, Lebanese and Turkish economies.[/size]
[size=45]And he demanded, “Some ministries concerned with financial policy, including the ministries of commerce and health, open documentary credits at the official price of the dollar in order to import goods and pump them into the markets so that the unofficial price is not prevailing.”[/size]
[size=45]Qusai stressed that "the Iraqi consumer is the one who pays the difference as a result of the increase in the price of the dollar, because all commodities in the country are linked to the parallel market."[/size]
[size=45]And he stressed, “The need for the relevant ministries to break this monopoly and place documentary credits for various purposes under the authority of Iraqi merchants so that we have a continuous system to pump goods into the markets and prices do not rise to the consumer.” And Qusai went on, "The countries that are subjected to sanctions are trying to take advantage of the trade chaos in Iraq in order to withdraw the dollar outside the official system, and we must consolidate the financial system while tracking the movement of the dinar in the local market."[/size]
[size=45][You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]