Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what recent steps her Department has taken to promote bilateral trade between (a) the UK and Iraq and (b) the UK and the Kurdistan Region; and if he will make a statement.

Total trade between the UK and Iraq was £720m for the four quarters ending Q3 2019. This represents a 45% increase (£246m) over the previous year.

Our efforts to increase trade with Iraq are on-going. Recent initiatives include Her Majesty’s Trade Commissioner’s participation at the Iraq Britain Business Council Conference, a trade visit to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq by the Department for International Trade’s Iraq Director, our Consul-General in Erbil briefing locally based British businesses and the doubling of UK Export Finance’s market cover from £1bn to £2bn in April 2019.