A home-goods seller messaged me last week: the goods cleared in Erbil, so why were they stopped again on the way to Baghdad?
Not a new story. Iraq runs two customs systems — federal customs toward Baghdad, KRG customs in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah. Separate tariff tables, separate paperwork, separate portals.
Put it this way: paying duty in the north does not mean the south recognizes it. From what I have seen over the past year, re-declaration cases after moving north-cleared cargo south have clearly climbed. The extra cost lands around 8-15% of cargo value, before truck detention and storage.
Transit times differ too. Air to Erbil is roughly 5-9 days, Baghdad 7-12. Clearance takes 3 days when it goes well, and two weeks when it does not. Q4 makes it worse — one hold tends to drag the next.
Three things I would do.
Pick the gateway by where you actually sell. If your buyers sit in the north, Erbil is fine. If Baghdad and the south carry your volume, do not chase those few faster days.
Keep documents consistent end to end. Invoice, packing list, bill of lading, declared description — everything has to line up. Re-declaration fights almost always start with “we cannot explain this.”
Keep a scanned copy of the clearance receipt locally. If you do get stopped, that sheet of paper beats a hundred messages in a group chat.
One more thing people miss: Iraq still runs on COD, with settlement cycles of 15-30 days. While cargo sits on the road, buyers often just refuse the delivery, and you cannot even start the refund cleanly.
Honestly, Iraq is not one market. It is two customs territories stitched together. Knowing where the goods are going matters more than saving three days. Our Iraq lanes split north and south warehouses for exactly this reason.
So what is your current north-to-south order split in Iraq?