ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Iraqi checkpoints have been preventing the entry of domestic products from the Kurdistan Region into the central and southern provinces for the past three months, a move causing significant financial damage to local business owners in Erbil, Sulaimani, and Duhok.

Iraq blocks products from poultry houses and factories from the Kurdistan Region, on grounds that the majority of them have either had their licenses expired or do not have one at all.

Of over 10,000 factories in the Kurdistan Region, only 35 of them are licensed and their products are allowed in other parts of Iraq, Nawzad Ghafour, head of the Sulaimani Chamber of Commerce, told The New Region on Monday.

Ghafour added that several meetings have been held in the past between relevant authorities of Erbil and Baghdad to address the issue at hand but to no avail.

“We have called for the reopening of the checkpoints to the products from the Kurdistan Region factories for six months until the issue is resolved between Erbil and Baghdad and they reach a mutual agreement,” Ghafour added.

The official stated that the Iraqi Council of Ministers should intervene to “decide on the matter and resolve it.”

Speaking on condition of anonymity, an official from the Duhok Chamber of Commerce said at some checkpoints in Kirkuk and Mosul, exports from the Kurdistan Region to southern Iraq are allowed through bribery, amounting to $300 to $400 per truckload.

One of the key objectives of Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani’s cabinet has been to diversify the Region’s economy by exporting goods abroad.

In an interview with Ava Media, The New Region’s media partner, in early October, Barzani said they were heavily focused on advancing the sectors of agriculture and industry in the Kurdistan Region to make them key sources of revenue.

Yet, a key challenge gripping local farmers and the domestic produce is the abundance of imported goods in the Kurdistan Region’s markets.