We'll keep buying Indian basmati: Kheer Allah Hassan Babkr

Iraq is aggressively looking at India to cooperate and participate in the West Asian country’s reconstruction programme. As for importing basmati rice from India, which has apparently irked the US, Iraq’s trade minister Kheer Allah Hassan Babkr tells Nayanima Basu that his country will continue to buy the rice from India. Excerpts:

While Iraq’s export to India is a whopping $9 billion, its import from India is merely $760 million. Why this disparity?
The main item that is traded between Iraq and India is crude oil from Iraq. We export 250,000 to 260,000 barrels of oil per day. Iraq has no other item to export on that scale. This is precisely why we are now visiting India to invite more and more Indian companies to come and invest in Iraq so that there is a balance. We are asking Indian businessmen and investors to look at Iraq as an opportunity. This is the only way we can increase two-way trade. We want to increase imports from India. In Iraq, even drinking water is imported.

 

Yesterday Iraq’s deputy prime minister Rowsch N Shaways and you met our (India’s) commerce and industry and textiles minister Anand Sharma. Did you discuss scaling up bilateral trade in the coming years?
The government of India has promised us they would stimulate the Indian private sector and investors to have a chance of doing business in India. We invite Indian firms to come to Iraq — either through joint venture partnership or independently. We have asked the companies to avoid middlemen and deal with us directly. There should be no need for a third party the India-Iraq trade. Indian companies should be able to deal directly with the players in Iraq.

Recently there were reports in international media that the US Congress is apparently upset with Iraq for importing basmati rice from India — and not from US. Your response?
No one can advise us for anything. We depend on our plan, and we have a specific plan for buying basmati rice from India. We have our own specification, and we follow a proper tendering process. We are buying rice as per our requirement and specification and not on the basis of its origin. We will continue to buy from India. Our requirement for basmati rice for the public distribution system is 1.2 million metric tonnes annually. We buy 100,000 metric tonnes from India. We are currently under negotiation with Indian companies to buy more Indian basmati, which is very well accepted by the Iraqi people.

India is eagerly looking at Iraq to increase its crude oil import in the wake of the payment crisis with Iran. Your response?
We will be happy to extend any help that is under my control. India is the biggest importer of Iraqi oil. We can further build our economic engagement based on this.

In the future, is there a possibility you would like to sign a separate trade deal like a free trade agreement with India?
There is no talk of a pact at this time. But we are talking on all matters broadly. We are now asking India to help in Iraq’s reconstruction programme.