Fee rise by Kurdish groups stops border trade

Kurdish authorities have long been collecting fees from truckers at a border crossing point at Zakho, averaging $30 a truck. A recent four-fold appreciation in the Kurdish dinar caused the fee to increase to $120-$150. Last Sunday, Turkish truck drivers refused to pay, clogging traffic at the crossing.

In spite of the U.N. Security Council resolution that named the U.S. and UK as occupying powers in Iraq, the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Administration played little or no role in resolving the dispute, said a U.N. official in Arbil.

"They [the Kurds] are running their own affairs here with little or no interference from the coalition," he said. After meeting U.N. officials on Monday, the local government in Dohuk province agreed to lower the fee to $20, payable in dollars. Within days, traffic was "back to normal", according to the WFP.

The border crossing has been a lucrative business for the Kurdish enclave since it gained autonomy under unofficial U.S. protection following the 1991 Gulf War.

The newspaper wrote that "The fee crisis raises the question of how the Kurdish enclave, which has enjoyed an economic boom for its 10 years of relative independence from Baghdad, is going to be fit back into an Iraqi state."

Coalition officials have declared they would be implementing a "tariff holiday" on Iraqi trade, which seems to contradict efforts by the Kurdish administration to tax trade revenues. A senior coalition official would not comment beyond saying: "They say the fees are intended to cover the costs of running the border, which is something we have taken note of."

Kurds regard with trepidation the allied attempts to bring their region back under Baghdad’s control. But coalition officials are eager not to repeat the experience of Afghanistan, which following U.S. liberation from the Taliban, has slid into semi-independent fiefdoms ruled by warlords.