EU Commission: Trade Talks With Iraq To Continue This Week
Monday February 25th, 2008 / 15h04
BRUSSELS--(Dow Jones)- The fourth round of talks between the European Commission and the government of Iraq to promote trade and cooperation will take place this week, the Commission said Monday. The two days of talks will start Wednesday and are expected to cover trade in goods and services, customs, taxation, industrial cooperation, transportation, agriculture and rural development, the commission said. The talks began in November 2006 and have already led to agreements on combating terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and energy cooperation. Iraq has the world's third-largest crude reserves and its oil ministry began a second round of talks late last week over the development of several major oil fields with energy giants BP PLC (BP), Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB), Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) and Chevron Corp. (CVX). Final agreements with the companies are likely to be signed during a third round of discussions in March. -By James Herron, Dow Jones Newswires; +32 2 741 1487; james.herron@dowjones.com
