Naser AL-Tamimi* Al Arabiya
Not long ago, Robert Kaplan, the well-known American writer,
“complained” in The Wall Street Journal, saying: “... We have liberated
Iraq so that Chinese firms can extract its oil.” The sentiment that was
expressed by Kaplan was in fact reflecting the evolution of the
situation in Iraq, where the Chinese presence was rising strongly.
Tellingly, Beijing’s position in Iraq evolved quickly, from among the
most outspoken of critics of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam
Hussein, to emerging as one of the biggest economic beneficiaries of
the war in Iraq.
China’s Catching-up Game
Ten years
after the American invasion, Iraq turned into an important energy /
trade partner for China. Indeed, the trade between Iraq and China
doubled almost 34 times. The volume of bilateral trade between the two
states soared to $17.5 billion by end-2012 from small amount of $ 517
million in 2002. In the same period, the trade between Iraq and the U.S.
increased only 5.6 times. The bilateral trade between both countries
rose to $ 21.6 billion by end-2012 from $ 3.8 billion in 2002. Last
year, China was both the second-largest purchaser of Iraqi exports, $
12.6bn, (after the U.S. $ 19.6bn) and the second-largest supplier of
imports, $ 4.9bn, (after Turkey $ 10.8 bn), according to latest data
from the U.N. Comtrade data. The United States still Iraq’s largest
trade partners, however the current trends suggest that China will soon
overtake America to become Baghdad’s top trade partner.
