Local exporters resort to safer Basra as alternative to Treibil border crossing

AMMAN – Investors in Jordan’s free zone in Zarqa are exploring safe venues to enter the Iraqi market as fighting in districts near the Jordanian border has forced them to halt their exports via Treibil. 

Manufacturers and merchants have started to export their goods to the Iraqi market through Basra, Iraq’s southern city near the border with Kuwait, President of the Jordan Free Zone Investors Association Nabil Rumman said Saturday. 

Rumman told The Jordan Times over the phone that some manufacturers and merchants ship goods by land cargo trucks which go to Basra city after crossing Saudi Arabia and Kuwait as direct exports from the free zone to the Iraqi market have come to a complete halt because of fighting between Sunni rebels and the forces of the Shiite-led government of Nouri Al Maliki. 

Sunni tribes currently run the Jordanian-Iraqi border as Iraqi military have withdrawn from Sunni districts near Jordan.  

Direct exports from the free zone to Iraq have been suspended for almost a month, he said, adding the longer the instability continues the more losses investors will incur.  

He estimated the losses of factories and investors in the free zone since fighting increased near the Jordanian-Iraqi border early June at around $120 million, explaining that auto exports to Iraq were worth $80 million a month, while other exports from factories based in the free zone accounted for $40 million. 

The leading investors said that cargo land shipment from Zarqa –– some 22km east of Amman –– to Basra –– around 545km south of Baghdad –– is very expensive but merchants have no other choice if they want to stay in business. 

“There are many businesses and factories in the free zone that were established as providers for the Iraqi market,” Rumman said, adding that Jordanian car importers based in the free zone used to export over 70,000 vehicles to Iraq per year.