Import Policy Watch: Customs, Standards, and Salvage Rules Updates
What officials have said about conformity, marking, and damaged imports, and what you still have to confirm before you ship. Not legal advice.
Import rules move buyer behavior faster than any review. When a standard tightens, auction cars get harder to justify and documented Gulf cars get easier to explain. This watch lists what is on the public record and what is only a reported statement. It does not set a duty, a model-year cutoff, or a fee. Those belong to customs and to COSQC on the day you ship. This is not legal advice.
The photo is a detail of a vehicle carrier. It shows how cars travel. It is not an Iraqi customs hall.
The standing conformity documents
COSQC's public vehicle page still describes conformity against Iraqi standard IQS 5072 and engineering requirement 167, which the page links to Gulf standard GSO 42. It asks importers for a GSO type conformity certificate for the model, via the official distributor or agent, and a list of VINs. It cites gazette notices from 2019 for when that framework became mandatory. If you are clearing a car this month, confirm that this page is still the process your post uses. Standards bodies can add a marking step without deleting an old essay.
Keep the certificate, the VIN list, and the port inspection result with the car. The next buyer will ask. A verbal "it was cleared" is how clean cars and problem cars get the same advert.
What was said about 2026
In late 2025, COSQC president Fayad al-Dulaimi told Shafaq News and other outlets that the Iraqi vehicle standard would be applied, including a marking provision, from the beginning of 2026, and that cars would need to meet technical requirement 167. He said the rule was not a ban on brands. He also said used cars with major accident damage, fire, or submersion are not allowed in. Trade ministry comments reported by Iraqi news agencies described the same start-of-2026 timing and a bar on severely damaged, flooded, and burned vehicles.
Quote those as reported official comments. Do not quote them as if this page has reproduced the regulation. Before you bid on a salvage auction, ask customs and COSQC whether that vehicle, with that title brand, can enter. A rebuilt title in another country is a clue that an insurer paid out. It is not a cosmetic category.
Other reported cabinet decisions have restricted some small three-wheelers and similar machines for a period of years. If you are not importing a normal passenger car or a mainstream pickup, ask about your category by name. Silence in a passenger-car article is not permission.
How buyers should behave while the rules settle
Prefer cars whose papers you can read over cars whose main virtue is a low auction bid. The flood and salvage guide shows the physical clues. The import checklist shows the questions for a broker. Use both. If a trader says the new marking rule "does not apply to this one," ask them to show the instruction they are relying on. You are allowed to wait.
Registration is the step after clearance. Federal plates and Kurdistan Region plates are not a single casual process. Outlets including Kurdistan24 have reported on plate changes over the years. Confirm the current transfer with the traffic directorate that will actually issue the plate. A broker's confidence is not the directorate.
When you list a freshly cleared car on Suuqak, set the origin field to what the papers say. Buyers filter GCC and USA. A wrong tick is a trust problem you will pay for later.
What this column will not do
It will not publish a duty rate, a storage tariff, or a banned-year list from memory. Those numbers change, and a wrong number is worse than no number. It will not tell you a shipment will clear. It will tell you which desk to ask.
If you are buying a car that is already plated in Iraq, this watch is background. Your risks are the ones in the buying guide: identity, deposits, and condition. Clearance stories from the seller still deserve a look at the packet, because a bad import does not become a good used car when it has a plate.
Check before you buy
Read COSQC's vehicle page, then ask customs, then ask the traffic directorate. Rules change. Nothing here is a legal opinion or a substitute for those offices.
Sources
COSQC vehicle page, as published. Reported comments by COSQC's president and by the trade ministry on 2026 marking, technical requirement 167, and damaged, flooded, and burned vehicles: Shafaq News and Iraqi news-agency reporting in late 2025. Plate context has been covered by Kurdistan24. Confirm all of it before you ship.