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Saccomani, who was once in charge of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s security detail, runs the Baghdad file from the relative safety of the Canadian embassy in Amman, Jordan, underscoring the security challenges facing Iraq.

While Saccomani noted that Ottawa will soon raise its profile in Baghdad and Erbil, capital of Kurdistan, the Iraqi side is seeking even more of a Canadian presence.

“We need a fully-staffed, fully-functioning embassy in Baghdad,” Abdul Kareem Toma Mahdi, ambassador of Iraq to Canada, told the business forum in Toronto. “Secondly, Canadian banks need to be involved to encourage and help Canadian businesses.”

With bilateral trade of just $2.1 billion, Iraq barely registers as a business destination for Canadian companies. With Ottawa continuing to advise Canadians “against all travel to Iraq” and discouraging non-essential travel to most provinces controlled by the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government in the north, that’s unlikely to change soon.

Adding to the woes, Iraq fares poorly as an investment destination and is considered the eighth most-corrupt country in the world, according to Transparency International.

As such, the largest trade mission to Canada from a Middle East state has modest ambitions.

“They are on a fact-finding mission rather than signing up contracts and agreements,” said Kadhim Taki, vice-president of the Iraq-Canada Business Council, who also runs a Richmond Hill, Ont.-based company selling laboratory equipment.