IRAQ: INVASION AND CLOSING-DOWN SALE

Though officially Iraq’s military invasion by the US finished last summer, the country cannot be regarded independent even today: its economic ’invasion’ is going on, due to the package of laws bequeathed by Paul Bremer, head of the Provisional Coalition Authority wound up since.

According to the analysis of the research institute ’Foreign Policy in Focus’ in San Francisco the Iraqi economy is almost totally thrown at the mercy of American interests, cancelling all import taxes and making it possible for American companies to become 100 pc owners of Iraqi firms to be privatized. This is unparalleled in the region where the foreign companies may have generally 50 pc of the shares of a company.

Translated by Péter Szentmihályi Szabó