Trade in used commodities, including clothes, electrical equipments, house accessories, cars and their spare parts, is flourishing in Baghdad these days, reported UAE's Al-Bayan newspaper. Iraqi merchants revealed that companies from Europe, South-East Asia and America collect used clothes, send them to merchants in Turkey, Cyprus, and Greece, or in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, there they are bought by other traders who sell them in Iraq. According to one of these merchants' estimation, the annual volume of used clothes trade is currently put at ID50 million.
As for the used car trade, it becomes popular in Iraq recently, after the fall of Saddam Hussein regime, which imposed taxes and payments up to 300% of the price of a new car, making its import irrational. Al-Qaser al-Abyad region in Baghdad is the leading area in the commerce of used spare parts.
Economists and specialists in Iraqi issues expect that this phenomenon of "the culture of the used" will diminish with the improvement of the economic situation in the country.
