Syria (Helimun)
Saudi Arabia (9 percent), and Turkey (8 percent). Syria's main import
products are machinery, food and live animals, transport equipment,
and chemicals. The country's main import partners include France
(which purchased 11 percent of imports in 1999), Italy (8 percent),
Germany (7 percent), Turkey (5 percent), and China (4 percent).
Additionally, a large amount of trade (nearly US $200 million) with
Lebanon, Turkey, and Iraq goes unrecorded. It is estimated that these
invisible flows favor Syria, as evidenced by the use of its military and
political influence on Lebanon to create a common market between the
2 countries, from which Syria will benefit.
As of 2001, there were about 200 state-owned trading companies that
enjoyed prohibitive tariff protection, overvalued exchange rates, and
restrictions on private-sector competition. These state-run companies
regulated most of Syria's exports. According to the Syrian Ministry of
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