Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2666 actions· ✨ 90 recent

At its 30 December 2025 regular session, Iraq's Council of Ministers, chaired by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' Al-Sudani, approved two additional customs duties on imports from all countries of origin: a 40% additional duty on medical and industrial oxygen (gaseous and liquid forms), in effect for four years, and a 30% additional duty on imported yogurt (laban rayeb) and liquid milk. Both measures were framed as protecting domestic pharmaceutical/ industrial-gas production and local dairy manufacturing respectively, and take effect 120 days after issuance (29 April 2026) to give importers an adjustment window. Global Trade Alert logs the dairy duty as principally affecting Germany, Saudi Arabia and Türkiye as leading supplier origins, though the measure itself is non-discriminatory (applies to all origins).

Iraq's Council of Ministers Decision No. 957 of 2025 (approved late 2025) revises the country's full customs tariff schedule — roughly 16,400 tariff lines across 99 HS chapters — into rate brackets from 0.5% to 30%, effective 1 January 2026 at all federal ports. Within that reform, the General Customs Authority singled out hybrid and electric vehicles (model year 2025 and newer) — previously exempt to encourage adoption — for a new 15% import duty, alongside a matching 15% duty on gold and other goods classed as non-essential/luxury. Global Trade Alert logs Austria, Canada and China as the leading supplier-origin countries affected, though the duty applies non-discriminately to all countries of origin.

On 2 September 2025, the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Waleed Khaled Hameed al-Samarra'i, a dual Iraqi/St Kitts-and-Nevis citizen, along with his UAE-based shipping manager Babylon and five Marshall Islands-registered shell companies (Tryfo Navigation, Keely Shiptrade, Odiar Management, Panarea Marine, Topsail Shipholding) that hold registered ownership of nine Liberia-flagged tankers (ADENA, LILIANA, CAMILLA, DELFINA, BIANCA, ROBERTA, ALEXANDRA, BELLAGIO, PAOLA). The network blends Iranian crude with Iraqi oil via ship-to-ship transfers in the Arabian Gulf and at Iraqi ports, then markets the blend as solely Iraqi-origin to evade US sanctions, generating hundreds of millions of dollars for the Iranian regime and al-Samarra'i. The action was taken pursuant to Executive Order 13902 and blocks all US property and interests of the designated individual, entities and vessels.

At its 32nd regular session on 10 August 2025, chaired by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' Al-Sudani, Iraq's Council of Ministers approved two additional customs duties on imports from all countries of origin: a 75% additional duty on the unit measure of imported paper napkins/tissues, and a 30% additional duty on the unit measure of white polystyrene plates and food-storage containers. Both duties run for four years without reduction, with domestic-market monitoring during the application period, and took effect 120 days after issuance (10 December 2025). Global Trade Alert logs China, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye as the principal supplier origins affected, though the measure itself is non-discriminatory (applies to all origins).

The Iraqi Council of Representatives adopted Law No. 4 of 2025 on 2 February 2025 (176 deputies present, majority vote), amending Article 12 of the Federal General Budget Law for Fiscal Years 2023-2024-2025 (Law No. 13 of 2023). The amendment mandates that the federal government pay international oil companies (IOCs) operating in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) USD 16 per barrel in advance for crude production and transportation costs — more than doubling the USD 6/bbl rate in the original budget law — with all KRI crude to be delivered to and marketed exclusively through the State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO). An international consulting firm, jointly appointed by Baghdad and Erbil within 60 days, is mandated to audit field-level production and transportation costs, with cost-recovery adjustments applied retroactively from the date pipeline flows resume. The law was published in the Iraqi Official Gazette (Al-Waqai al-Iraqiyya) Issue No. 4814 on 17 February 2025.

FinCEN issued a final rule under Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act (31 U.S.C. § 5318A) prohibiting US covered financial institutions from opening or maintaining a correspondent account for, or on behalf of, Iraq-based Al-Huda Bank, a foreign financial institution found to be of primary money-laundering concern. Treasury determined that Al-Huda Bank exploited its access to US dollars to support designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations including Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and IRGC-Quds Force, as well as Iran-aligned Iraqi militias Kata'ib Hizballah and Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq. The rule also imposes a special-due-diligence requirement on US covered institutions to guard against indirect access via foreign correspondent accounts. Published in the Federal Register on July 3, 2024; effective August 2, 2024.