Non-US Firms Frozen Out of Iraq

[kskiska]

The US is to reaffirm that non-American companies cannot win government contracts in the multi-billion dollar effort to rebuild Iraq.

Only companies with US joint ventures can expect to take prime contractor roles in a fresh wave of reconstruction programmes to be funded by the $18.6 billion budget cleared by the US Congress last month.

(snip)

The US-first rules have been a source of grievance to UK companies seeking to win work in Iraq. Some companies, and industry bodies such as the British Consultants and Contractors Bureau hoped the regulations would be relaxed.

But a briefing to British contractors from UK Trade and Investment, the government agency that promotes British commercial interests overseas, makes clear this will not happen: 'It is reasonable to expect that strong US connections will enhance the potential for businesses to secure contracts either by creating joint ventures with American majority partners or presenting themselves through their US operations.'

more…
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,6903,1080698,00.html

[Voltaire99]

1. Finders...keepers

Hey, our democracy-loving liberators who blow open women and children found this nice lil 'ol country.

We think we'll keep it.

[DUreader]

2. No foreign business allowed in Burma if not a joint venture with Mil. Gov.

sounds familiar

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

3. Sounds like a democracy to me.

NOT.

However, it does sound like America 2003. You pay the pResidential Corporation, you get the business.

[pnorman]

4. That's the problem here.

Those foreign outfits are prohibited by law, in "investing" in the US Presidency (ie: Bushco). Perhaps, that could be appealed to WTO under Restraint of Trade provisions?

[truthisfreedom]

5. this is part of the continuing circle of punishment by bushco in europe

bush has to continue to punish europe for standing against his invasion and occupation, and use the "punishment" as an excuse to reward his contributors with billions of dollars. let's look at a number analysis for a moment... this is very interesting. let's say that all 87 billion dollars are spent on american-based companies, with 500,000 total dollars contributed by some of them to bush*s election campaign. if you do some quick math, you'll see that that's .0057 on the dollar that bush is getting... whereas, the arthur anderson finanacial punishment announced yesterday in court was only .0016 on the dollar... that's right... they had to pay a penalty of only .16 cents per dollar for what they did to the shareholders and employees. bush gets more than 3 times as much financial reward for keeping the money "in the family" as arthur anderson has to pay for destroying people's lives.

is anyone as irritated as i am by this?

let's look at this punishment scheme again... bushco punishes the europeans for refusing to get involved in an unjustified invasion. bushco also punishes the democrats for a "leaked memo" by stopping the investigation into the unjust war. the republicans punish the poorest parts of the country by denying democrats any of the "pork" in the newest version of the spending programs being passed...

bushco and the republicans have become the "parents" who increasingly punish everyone else for not doing things the way they want. they have adopted the role of the parents, the know-alls, the ones in total power, and everyone else is a child who must be punished for "acting out" because the parents are sick and corrupt. this sort of symbolism will be exploited for years to come if we don't break the pattern next year by stopping bushco in it's tracks.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

6. How would Americans feel if a robber was told to pay back 16 cents on the

and all would be forgiven?

A mugger hits me for $100.00 and is caught. He is told to give me back $16.00 and go about his merry way.

I'd say he has pretty good reason to continue in this profitable business paradigm.

[truthisfreedom]

7. no, you've got the figure wrong. .16 cents means $.0016. which means

that the payment made by arthur anderson is 16 cents per hundred dollars.

not 16 dollars.

16 cents per hundred dollars owed.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

8. Good God. The Robber Barons are alive and well.