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France Seeks Big Role in Post-War Iraq
Tue Mar 25, 4:11 PM ET

By KIM HOUSEGO, Associated Press Writer

PARIS - Worried it could be shut out of business deals in postwar Iraq (news - web sites), France is drawing up plans to win French companies access to lucrative oil and reconstruction contracts, officials said Tuesday.

The government is determined that French companies will be part of rebuilding Iraq, despite President Jacques Chirac's vigorous opposition to the war, a Finance Ministry official said.


Gilles Munier, an executive board member of the French-Iraq Association for Economic Cooperation, said business leaders and government representatives were studying how to gain a foothold in postwar Iraq.


He said a meeting between France's most powerful business federation, government leaders and the French-Iraq Association for Economic Cooperation was scheduled for April 3.


The Finance Ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed discussions were underway with business leaders about Iraq.


Some French are concerned that a U.S.-led administration in Iraq will favor companies from the United States and other pro-war countries while penalizing companies from France and other war opponents.


The Bush administration awarded a $4.8 million contract Monday to a Seattle-based company to rebuild Iraq's only deep-water port. Washington is expected to announce similar deals soon.


Officials in Paris say French firms' experience in working in Iraq would be an advantage.


French companies — many with ties to Baghdad stretching back decades — have established themselves as the largest suppliers of goods to Iraq since a U.N. trade embargo was partially lifted in 1996.


In 2001, France exported $705 million worth of goods to Iraq within the framework of the United Nations (news - web sites)' now-frozen oil-for-food program. Communications equipment maker Alcatel clinched a $75 million contract to upgrade Baghdad's phone network, and Renault sold $75 million worth of tractors and farming vehicles to Iraq.


French oil giant TotalFinaElf probably has the biggest stake. It spent six years in the 1990s doing preparatory work on two giant oil fields and has signed two tentative agreements with Saddam to develop them.


Munier said he believes American companies will have difficulties in Iraq because of widespread anger against the U.S.-led bombing campaign.


"I don't see how American executives can work when their lives will be at risk," he said. "There will be such hatred toward Americans."


Munier criticized French companies for negotiating with American companies for a piece of their businesses in Iraq, saying that such "collaboration" would damage the image of French business among Iraqis.


Differences over how to run Iraq after the war have put added strain on already tense relations between the United States and several European countries.


France opposes any U.S. reconstruction plan that would sideline United Nations development agencies, multilateral organizations and non-governmental aid groups.


Chirac has warned that France would vote against any U.N. Security Council resolution that would give "the American and British belligerents the right to administer Iraq."

 

While we have all our stuff over there, we should blow the crap out of France too.

 

I say **** them... they didnt want to get involved so they shouldnt

 

Do you know why they opposed the war to begin with? It's because they already have a deal with Saddam....now that he's going to be booted....well well well.....France is scrambling for new deals

 

Being that the US is leading the coalition for the ouster of Saddam and his regime, don't we get to pick and choose who is onboard for the rebuilding of Iraq and it's government?

 

I wouldn't say we are going to pick them.....the future of Iraq is very uncertain right now to be honest

 

France is teh ghey

 

same with russia and china.... hmmm..... coincidence?

as i said on another thread.... the UN is a worthless toothless organization because of those senior members would forgo the greater good to line their pockets and live the life of fat rats.

plus... france has always been the apple polisher that rides on the coat tails of greatness.

 

"French oil giant TotalFinaElf probably has the biggest stake. It spent six years in the 1990s doing preparatory work on two giant oil fields and has signed two tentative agreements with Saddam to develop them."

Most of the Iraqi oil supply is as of yet either non-developed or not even discovered. The Iraqi government doesn't have the finances to develop these oil fields so they signed an agreement with TotalFinaElf more than a few years ago which gave them the rights to develop the oil fields if/when UN sanctions on Iraq were lifted.

TotalFinaElf is not the French government, it is an oil company. The French government's main reason for opposing the war was not to protect TotalFinaElf from loosing its contract as a result of the removal of Saddam's government. The U.S. government has more of a stake in the oil market, as France is much less dependent on petroleum for its energy supply than we are. U.S.-based oil companies stand to gain from a Saddam ouster because they will have access to the undeveloped resources in Iraq that otherwise would have gone to TotalFinaElf.

France's government was no more motivated by oil than our own, so we can't exactly hold it against them without finding the U.S. just as much at fault.
Presumably we'll be setting up a democratic government that has the ability to regulate its own free-market economy. This is no more than Chirac posturing to say that companies based in his country will have access to a post-Saddam Iraq. So will everybody else.

 

duh! f'in idiots.