The County Council of Baghdad has banned the import of Turkish goods to the city because of Turkish soldiers traveling to Bashiqa to train the peshmerga forces. The ban also includes any further agreements to be signed with Turkish firms.
The council claims that Turkey is violating the state sovereignty of Iraq and further sanctions and bans are to follow in other cities. This embargo, which is currently at the city council level, is not expected to be imposed on the Iraqi markets. Experts and authorities underlined that almost half of Iraq's imports are from Turkey and said that Iraqi consumers cannot be banned from purchasing Turkish goods.
A troop of soldiers from the Turkish Armed Forces had been sent to the Bashiqa region of Mosul to train peshmergas and increase the number of soldiers in the region. The Iraqi central government had requested Turkey withdraw its troops from Iraqi soil.
In the first 11 months of the year Turkey's exports to Iraq totaled $7.9 billion, which made Iraq the third-biggest destination for Turkish exporters. However, this figure was $9.6 billion during the same time period of the previous year. Iraq was the second-biggest destination for Turkish exporters in 2014 with a total export volume of $10.6 billion.
