November 22, 2005

Iraq's wheat imports from Australia to continue
 

Iraqi would continue its wheat imports from Australia and has not suspended imports from Australia's AWB Ltd., the trade minister said Monday.

"There is no problem with our wheat imports from Australia and they will continue," Abdul Basset Mawlood said in a statement.

"Our wheat imports from Australia are normal and shipments from deals (signed with Australia's wheat exporter AWB Ltd.) are arriving in the country normally."

The statement was a response to a report published by The Australian newspaper, which claimed Baghdad had suspended imports of Australian wheat.

The paper quoted Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad al-Chalabi demanding that AWB pay compensation for millions of dollars that it paid to a Jordanian trucking company, which UN investigations said was a front for the regime of the deposed dictator, Saddam Hussein.

AWB has denied knowingly being involved in paying money to Saddam's regime through Alia Transportation, and said it could have been an unwitting participant in an elaborate scheme of deception devised by the regime.

Last week, the ministry's general inspector Nidhal Mardood said that Baghdad has not banned imports of wheat from Australia, but asked AWB to pay US$10 million in compensation, either in cash or with wheat, for what he said was a contaminated wheat shipment purchased in September.

Australia has been the dominant supplier of wheat to Iraq for about 15 years, but in the past six months, Iraq has bought more wheat from the US than from Australia.