Tuesday, March 5, 2024
"STATUS OF THE RV: Status of joining the WTO, (PART2)" BY MNT GOAT, 5 MARCH
Status of joining the WTO:
In the news this period we hear of the World Trade Organization (WTO) assigning the Saudi representative to the organization, Saqr Al-Muqbel, to manage the file of Iraq’s accession, and he came to Baghdad on an important visit and met with the Iraqi negotiating team, and many issues were addressed, the most important of which were the files of goods and services, as well as the legislation. What legislation? Remember there is law that parliament must still first pass to facilitate investors coming into Iraq.
In todays, news also on this WTO topic, Bloomberg revealed the reasons for Iraq’s current inability to join the World Trade Organization. The agency said in a report, “Libya, Lebanon, Sudan, and Iraq are among the countries trying to join the WTO, but due to conflict and fragility, this hinders their accession”. But this article by Bloomberg does not, of course, tell the entire story and we as investors know more details then revealed even in this article about Iraq’s accession in particular.
Just wanted to let everyone know that you don’t have to step on to the daily. Weekly RV roller coaster. There is a better way and that is knowing the TRUTH about the monetary reform process and just where Iraq now is in the process.
The monetary process to revert back to a global economy remains basically the same since Dr Shabibi time period, but the requirements to meet the process have been tightened down so tight during the Obama administration and now still carried out by the Biden administration. Dr. Shabibi understood how he could make it all work in 2011 when the CBI and IMF outlined their plan. This is why he was ready to go in January of 2013. He even had timelines, as we found out in later years by his news media interview, but the Obama era caused a drastic change in the requirements which I believe was to delay and allow for all this corruption we now see playing out, that is a challenge now for the current CBI leadership under Ali Alaq to overcome.
https://mntgoatnewsusa.com/latest-mnt-goat-newsletter/"STATUS OF THE RV (PART1)" BY MNT GOAT, 5 MARCH
STATUS OF THE RV
Welcome to March and spring is less than a month away. Just to clarify – there never was any plan to reinstate the Iraqi dinar in February. Get it? When you read today’s news you will learn yet more evidence as to why I keep saying this.
Let’s get on with today’s news….
In Shafaq News the Central Bank of Iraq confirmed, on Saturday and I quote from the article- “that it has provided five alternative currencies to the dollar, for merchants to use in purchasing their goods from other countries using each country’s currency through the bank. This was just the start as deputy Governor of the Central Bank, Ammar Hamad, told Shafaq News Agency, “The Central Bank provided other foreign currencies to Iraqi merchants, which are (the euro, the Chinese yuan, the Turkish lira, the Emirati dirham, and the Indian rupee)”.
But here is the best part of today’s news, as if it was not very good already these past weeks. I quote from the article – “He added, “These currencies have become available to merchants for the purpose of financing foreign trade. When a merchant imports goods from China, he can now pay in the Iraqi dinar to the Iraqi bank, and through the bank, the amount will be paid to the Chinese company and factory in the Chinese currency.”
So let’s take a step back and remember how far Iraq has come already gone in the monetary reform process. In December of 2022 they completed war reparation payments to Kuwait. This opened up the door to move ahead aggressively with the monetary reform process to get to their ultimate goal, which is the reinstatement of their dinar back to FOREX and other currency exchanges. Just keep your eye on the ultimate goal.
Getting to the ultimate goal was not going to be easy for Iraq. It would require a lot of changes and thinking about how to run their monetary system. Since Dr Shabibi’s time we heard about the desire for electronic banking and Point of Sale (POS) electronic payments. Many did not understand fully why the CBI was pushing this effort even a decade ago, but now we know as article after article tells the story now why this is so integrated in the process of the monetary reform.
Here is a list of just some of the items of importance of electronic transactions that I can list off the top:
- Help to reduce corruption with the dollar
- Will allow the shrinkage of the monetary mass in circulation (Remember if the monetary mass decreases the value of the currency typically increases. The CBI has certain goals in this manner before the Project to Delete the Zeros);
- Help to stabilize the parallel dollar market within the “official CBI rate”
- Puts more money in the banks that then allows capital for the banks to loan the funds for businesses, mortgages, investments, etc. But most importantly the banks now have alternative sources of income other than the spreads from the currency auctions. This will help curve banking corruption.
I would like to briefly explain how trade payments work between countries. For example, factory owners in China don’t want anything but the Chinese yuan, just like factories in the US want US dollars. So according to this article today, now China (the first country) will accept the dinar but through trade brokers at the bank that will convert the dinar to yuan for the companies. My main point is this – the dinar is now slowly being rolled out and recognized as a valuable currency to the world and soon to be widely accepted as a global currency by many more countries. Get it? It is slow to roll out but this move by the China and the CBI is a very important one. Just remember now that just over a year ago no one wanted the dinar. China, of all the developed countries, is now willing to trade using the dinar as payment. WOW!
But remember also the dinar is not widely accepted yet but normally this process once started does not take long and that is why I am excited so much about this article. This move puts pressure to convert the dinar to it’s true value, the TRUE value not the 3120 but what we have been waiting for, finally.
Also we must keep in the back of our minds that the CBI told us (reminded us) just a week ago that the electronic platform (currency auctions) is going to end very soon. The banks will be taking up the responsibility of supplying any needed dollars for trade, but in doing so will use their own monetary banking reserve swaps between banks of other countries to do so.
How can this happen if other currencies weren’t also flowing i to the Iraqi banks? The answer is that they are, as today’s article reinforces this policy again. But it is not a new policy just that I could be used due to the sanctions and auction process.
The most important takeaway I had from this part of the news last week was that, when this does occur, the CBI will no longer be using the CBI reserves in dollars for this effort but instead the banks will use the “normal” banking processes meaning as used globally by all banks. In other words, we can see this entire “sanctioned” way of the monetary process flipping very rapidly now back to the global process, as before the 1991 and the 2003 wars.
I hear so much needless worry about Iraq’s WTO accession. Relax folks, calm down as it is going to happen. Even today in the news Iraq once again gives us this assurance. Does Iraq need to RV for the WTO. There is nothing in writing anywhere stating this is the case. However, a country does need a currency that can be globally traded and we now know that the Iraq IQD is still under OFAC US Treasury sanctions. This is why when the banks look at their screens when researching the IQD rates, they see it, but won’t touch it yet due to the sanctions. We must be patient as these sanctions too will be released soon. I just want to remind everyone of these stories of people now exchanging. Are they really? Are these banks committing a crime? Would you even want to be part of this? Could these exchanges be clawed back someday in the future? Is this what you want?.....WILL CONTINUE
"IMPORTANT IRAQ NEWS: PARLIAMENTARY INSISTENCE ON LEGISLATING INVESTMENT, OIL AND GAS LAWS" BY MNT GOAT, 5 MARCH
PARLIAMENTARY INSISTENCE ON LEGISLATING INVESTMENT, OIL AND GAS LAWS
Information / Baghdad… Member of the Economy and Investment Committee, MP Muhammad Al-Ziyadi, confirmed on Wednesday that the committee has begun discussing amendments to the National Investment Law for approval during the current semester, indicating that there is parliamentary insistence to approve the oil and gas law.
Al-Ziyadi told Al-Maalouma, “The Economy and Investment Committee has begun making amendments to the National Investment Law, suggesting that the amendments will be completed next week before submitting it to the Presidency of the Council for approval.”
He added that “the Federal Court’s decision regarding the region’s oil prompted the political forces to move to approve the law.” “Oil and gas.”
It is noteworthy that the Federal Supreme Court, in its session held last Wednesday, obligated the Kurdistan Regional Government to hand over all oil and non-oil revenues to Baghdad .
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CLARE: Revealing the reasons for the delay in the arrival of amendments to the budget schedules to Parliament, 5 MARCH
CLARE
Revealing the reasons for the delay in the arrival of amendments to the budget schedules to Parliament
3/5/2024
Baghdad..
Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Planning Committee, Muhammad Al-Baldawi, revealed, on Tuesday, the real reasons behind the government’s delay in sending amendments to the current year’s budget schedules to the House of Representatives for the purpose of approval.
Al-Baldawi told Al-Maalouma, “The delay in sending amendments to the 2024
budget schedules to Parliament is due to several reasons, including the ministries not completing their plans regarding the lagging projects, as the government is working to close this file, as well as the difference in prices and currency values.”
He added, “Among those reasons relates to the schedules and amounts allocated to the Kurdistan region of Iraq, especially after the recent decisions issued by the Federal Court, which obligated the government to do so.”
He pointed out that “most of these reasons and obstacles have been overcome by the government and will be sent to Parliament very soon.”