U.S. Selling Off Iraq-Owned Companies

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S.-led occupation authority is taking initial steps toward selling off the first of Iraq's scores of state-owned companies to investors, but will stick to small enterprises until a sovereign Iraqi government takes over the job, the American privatization chief said Friday.

Thomas Foley said the privatizing of Iraq's government-dominated economy will begin with service companies, such as a taxi-limousine service and an architectural design firm.

"We selected a small group, fewer than 10 SOEs (state-owned enterprises) that are very small and very simple, low-asset businesses to begin initial privatization steps," said Foley, in charge of private-sector development under the Coalition Provisional Authority.

The U.S. plan for Iraqi privatization is controversial. Some critics interpret Article 47 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, protecting civilians in wartime, as outlawing major alterations in an occupied country's economic system, through its prohibition of annexation of occupied territory.

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