How to import car parts from Dubai to Kurdistan (Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, Duhok)

The Kurdistan Region runs a product-safety gate of its own, separate from Baghdad's. Intertek's FAQ for the programme says it is mandated by the New Standard Company, a body of the Kurdistan government, and the regulated product list Intertek publishes, issued on 25 July 2023, puts motor vehicle spare parts in its Group III, beside tyres and tubes, safety glass for road vehicles and motor vehicle accessories. A parts list bound for Erbil is regulated goods, not a grey area.

Intertek is the sole body authorised to certify. Its exporter guidelines describe three routes, A for unregistered products, B for registered ones and C for licensed ones, with test reports from an ISO 17025 laboratory or testing that Intertek arranges, a physical check of labels and markings, and a certificate issued before shipment. The FAQ is blunt about the alternative: regulated goods reaching a Kurdistan border without a certificate are rejected, and inspection on arrival is not allowed.

Where the certificate is checked depends on the crossing. Intertek's guidelines tie the programme to Ibrahim Khalil, the border with Turkey, and its 2022 FAQ also names Haji Omaran, saying consignments entering elsewhere were then outside it. A Dubai order trucked north enters through federal Iraq, where Iraq's own Certificate of Conformity covers vehicle spare parts. Intertek issues under both programmes, so the importer settles with Intertek which certificate the route needs before anything ships.

Federal Iraq lifted the import licence on second-hand spare parts in July 2025, and none of that changes our offer: we export new parts only. What we quote for the Region is the service and repair list of a young fleet, filters, pads and discs, wiper blades, sensors, suspension links and bushes, cooling parts, lamps and panels, each carrying the maker's part number for the Intertek check.

Duty in the Region has been a moving target in 2026. Federal Iraq switched to duty by tariff line under Cabinet Decision 957 at the start of the year, and Duhok's traders joined the protests against it, Shafaq News reported in February. Kurdistan still runs its own customs administration, with about 14,000 tariff classifications of its own, and traders in the Zakho border area, which handles the Ibrahim Khalil trade with Turkey, told Kurdistan24 in June that commerce had fallen by about 70% over roughly seven months.

On 18 June 2026 Iraq's federal customs authority and the Region's customs administration signed an agreement to run the ASYCUDA customs system at Kurdistan's crossings, Ibrahim Khalil included. Channel8 reported on 15 August that the implementation minutes were final but still awaited the Kurdish Council of Ministers, with a 50-50 split of customs revenue agreed and the Region due to join in September. We have not been able to confirm whether it did.

So this page prints no duty rate for parts. Two exemptions are clear, and both concern cars rather than parts: the Region waived customs duty on electric vehicles in September 2025, and its December 2025 rules extended the exemption to hybrids. Your clearing agent in Erbil, Sulaymaniyah or Duhok reads the charge for each HS code on the day the goods clear, and that figure is the one you pay.

Kurdistan's certificate is built from our documents. The exporter guidelines start with a request-for-certificate form carrying the shipment details, then test data or Intertek's own testing, then an inspection of the goods against the shipping and transaction papers. So our commercial invoice lists each part with its number, brand, grade, origin, quantity, value and HS code, and the packing list numbers the cartons in the same order, which lets the inspector in Dubai and the officer at the border trace any box to its line.

The Dubai Chamber's certificate of origin names the maker's country, Japan for a Toyota filter, Korea for a Kia pad, China for a part made there, rather than the UAE, so a re-exported part earns no Arab free-trade preference at the Region's border either. Intertek's inspection checks each product's markings and labels against its standard. Send the importer's registered name and the city of delivery with the order, because the certificate of conformity, the invoice and the waybill must all name the same consignee.

Your cargo agent collects the packed cartons in Dubai and books one of two routes. Compact, valuable lines fly to Erbil, where the Region's own customs clear them. Heavier loads go by road across Saudi Arabia and Kuwait into southern Iraq, then north through federal territory to the Region. Neither route depends on container sailings through the Strait of Hormuz, which a Semafor report described as close to a standstill in early September 2026.

A road load passes from federal Iraq into the Region, where the separate customs administration described above still applies, so ask your agent who clears the goods at each stage and which certificate of conformity the clearing agent will present. We give no transit times for either route; the borders and the agent set them, and in 2026 the dollar dispute described below has also slowed trade at Ibrahim Khalil, Channel8 reported in August.

Iran is not a route. Intertek's FAQ notes that Haji Omaran, on the border between Iran and Kurdistan, carries commercial transit, and part of the Region's car imports arrive over its eastern crossings, but we refuse any order that travels through Iran, by road, by port or by transshipment. Intertek states that it will not certify regulated shipments to Kurdistan originating from Iran. If an agent offers a cheaper route through an Iranian port, the answer is no.

A person confirms how to pay on WhatsApp once the quote is agreed. Kurdish importers face a currency squeeze of their own: Rudaw reported on 1 April 2026 that the official rate was 1,320 dinars to the dollar against about 1,546 on the market, and that Kurdistan traders could reach official-rate dollars only by paying federal taxes in advance through a platform not yet joined to the Region's system. In August, Channel8 reported the Central Bank denying official-rate dollars to Kurdish traders.

Traders told Kurdistan24 in June that the customs deal should let them move funds through government banks at the official rate, but it was not confirmed in force when we last checked. Ask us early for a final pro forma invoice with HS codes and values, so your bank and your clearing agent work from one document, and confirm any change of payment details inside the WhatsApp chat you opened from this page, never on a new number.

The rules issued by the Region's Ministry of Interior on 20 December 2025 shut out right-hand-drive cars entirely, with burnt and submerged ones, so Gulf-spec lamps, wing mirrors, bumpers and panels share the steering side of the cars in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah. The same rules keep the fleet young, which narrows the guesswork: a part number for a car from the last three model years is easier to pin down than one for a twenty-year-old import.

Specification still varies by origin. Iraq took 18,000 cars directly from China in the first half of 2025, Rudaw reported, and a China-market version can differ from the same model sold in the Gulf in lamps, sensors and trim, while US-spec cars, far fewer by mid-2025 than at the start of the year, differ in bumpers and emissions parts. The VIN settles which version we price, and for a Chinese make the person quoting says plainly when no UAE distributor carries the part.

The Region's fleet is being renewed fast. Car imports rose from 122,000 in 2023 to 172,000 in 2024 and passed 114,000 by the end of August 2025, according to 964media, and the December 2025 rules require taxis to arrive new and buses of more than 25 seats, small trucks and large trucks to be 2017 models or later. That is a fleet of recent engines and platforms, whose service parts are made in volume and catalogued by part number.

Chinese makes now lead the arrivals. Hemin Ali, a car dealer in Erbil, told Rudaw in September 2025 that Chinese brands had dominated the market for over eight months and made up about two-thirds of imports, and that 104 hybrids he brought in one month sold within 18 days. Rudaw put the average imported Chinese car at about USD 13,300, against USD 34,500 for a Japanese one. Across Iraq, MG, Jetour and the Great Wall Wingle were among 2024's leading Chinese names.

For this fleet we quote OE-brand and quality aftermarket service parts first, and genuine whenever asked, since a car still under a dealer's care may need the carmaker's box. The gap between grades is wide: on Dubai shelves on 3 November 2026, Toyota's own water pump for the 1GR-FE V6 cost 1.7 to 1.9 times what two aftermarket makers charged for theirs. For Chinese makes we quote only what a UAE distributor stocks, by VIN, and hybrid batteries not at all.

Our side: we source and price your list across UAE distributors and aftermarket ranges with every grade and brand named, write the invoice and packing list in the form Intertek and the Kurdish customs read, request the certificate of origin and pack for air or road. We do not book or pay for the Intertek inspection: your agent arranges it in Dubai, and its fee is not in our quote.

Your side: the importer of record in Erbil, Sulaymaniyah or Duhok clears the goods, pays whatever duty the tariff line carries, and deals with the bank over dollars. Your cargo agent books the flight or the trucks and passes us the UAE exit papers once the load has left, because a sale collected in Dubai is zero-rated for UAE VAT only with that proof. We hand over in Dubai and refuse anything routed through Iran.