According to Elaibi, “Under the trade policies [which have been adopted] of 2003, the border has been open and the customs tariff system controlling the entry of foreign goods has been canceled.” He added, “The subsidies policies have not encouraged the establishment of a real industry. Rather, they have encouraged dependency on government projects, which created a ‘parasite class’ that lives off unproductive contracting.”
Iraqis do not only suffer from the absence of local goods, but also from widespread low-quality imports. They accuse traders of importing cheap commodities at the expense of quality, to realize the greatest possible profits. These practices were confirmed by China's commercial attache in Iraq, Wang Xi Tong, who blamed the Iraqi traders of “importing poor-quality products.
The low-quality imports now also include medicines. There are multiple complaints and protests demanding to hold accountable the importers of poor-quality and expired medicines that have killed many citizens. In the city of Karbala, citizens complained about low-quality imported products. On Feb. 2, protests took place in Basra, southeast of Baghdad, demanding that the market be revitalized with locally made products. Member of the Council of Representatives of Iraq Hamam Hamoudi called on March 18 for buttressing the local industry with locally made products to boost the country’s economy.
In this context, Salama al-Salhi, cultural consultant to the prime minister, told Al-Monitor, “Since 2003, the Iraqi market has been wide open to the entry of goods from various origins and of bad quality.” Salhi attributed the low-quality products to “the absence of quality control and consumer protection laws,” and the declining industrial and agricultural production to “the displacement of farmers to the cities because of desertification and their integration into the ranks of the armed forces. Moreover, paralyzed production of electricity and lack of government support for the domestic industry were behind the importation.”
Salhi's statements in regard to the lack of national commodities in the Iraqi markets are supported by Mohi al-Masoudi, an economic researcher from Babil. He spoke of different reasons, namely “the war, occupation, terrorism, corruption and huge oil rents,” and said, “The cost of local agricultural and industrial products is higher than the selling price in the absence of subsidies.”
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