UNCTAD is set to host the 6^th event in the series of capacity building and technical assistance activities, including specialized national and regional workshops, training and advisory meetings, delivered to support Iraq’s strive to join the World Trade Organization (WTO). These activities were initiated four years ago under the UN Development Account Project (13^th Tranche, 2020-24).

The 3^rd meeting of the Working Party on the accession of Iraq to the WTO, held on 18 July 2024, triggered the official resumption of Iraq’s WTO membership negotiations, after 16 years of hiatus. The reactivation of the accession process entails for the government of Iraq to undertake a sheer volume of accession-related preparatory work at home. This covers a wide ranging and complex technical and legal reviews of core trade policy areas, involving not only measures related to market access in goods and services trade, but more importantly the systematic alignment of Iraq’s trade-related legislative and regulatory frameworks to ensure consistency of its foreign trade regime with WTO agreements and disciplines.

 At the request of the Iraqi Ministry of Trade, which is leading the accession process, in coordination with all concerned governmental bodies and institutions, UNCTAD interventions have been designed and geared to enhance government officials capabilities in trade policy formulation and upgrade their trade negotiations skills.

The agenda of the workshop in Antalya provides for advisory and consultative sessions to be conducted by UNCTAD experts with the 11 participants, representing key trade and economic sectors of Iraq, including five ministries, i.e. Trade, Finance (central bank of Iraq and Customs Authority), Tourism, Health and transportation, in addition to the Investment Commission. Iraqi officials will thus be enabled to formulate replies to an important number of specific questions addressed by WTO members to Iraq after the abovementioned 3^rd meeting of the WTO Working Party (WP), as part of the usual examination of any acceding country’s trade regime.

It is expected that the outcome of this workshop will feed into the preparation process of the 4^th WP, to be convened in the course of 2025 and, hence, contribute to the consolidation of the progress achieved so far towards Iraq’s integration into the multilateral trading system.