ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A high-level delegation from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is expected to travel to Baghdad next week to discuss the implementation of the Automatic System for Customs Data (ASYCUDA) and ongoing disputes over non-oil revenues, a Kurdish official said on Monday.
“If no changes occur, the high-level delegation is scheduled to visit Baghdad next Monday. This is for the purpose of reaching a full understanding and agreement between both sides regarding that system,” Sami Jalal, an advisor to the Kurdistan Region’s interior ministry and head of the KRG negotiating team on the ASYCUDA file, told Rudaw.
The planned visit comes amid continued negotiations between Erbil and Baghdad over customs digitization and fiscal coordination, following the postponement of an earlier trip.
The talks are expected to focus primarily on ASYCUDA, an electronic customs platform developed by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in the early 1980s. The system is designed to digitize and standardize customs procedures and is currently used at all 22 federal border crossings in Iraq, excluding those in the Kurdistan Region.
Under the system, importers are required to obtain federal approval, pay customs duties in advance, and access foreign currency at the official exchange rate through the Central Bank of Iraq.
While Baghdad views ASYCUDA as a mechanism to improve transparency and boost revenue collection, its implementation in the Kurdistan Region has raised concerns among Kurdish officials, who fear it could reduce the Region’s administrative authority over its border crossings.
Jalal said negotiations remain ongoing and that several issues have yet to be resolved.
“We still have some points of disagreement; otherwise, there is generally a good understanding," he said, adding that their main concern and efforts are "to protect the legal and constitutional specificities of the Kurdistan Region so that the implementation of the system is within the framework of the Region's prerogatives."
"We will implement it, but it must be done in our own way.”
According to information obtained by Rudaw, another key issue expected to be discussed during the visit is the collection and management of domestic non-oil revenues, which remains a point of contention between Erbil and Baghdad.
The upcoming talks follow a series of meetings aimed at resolving long-standing disputes over customs administration and digitalization. In April, delegations from both governments met in Erbil to advance an agreement on implementing ASYCUDA and modernizing customs procedures.
Earlier, in March, Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani told Rudaw during a press conference that the KRG had accepted the principle of implementing the system, saying they had "agreed to install the system in the Kurdistan Region. However, the implementation mechanism must be through the institutions of the Kurdistan Region, and this takes time.”
