German Companies Use Pre- Iron Curtain Ties for Iraqi Business

Aug. 4 (Bloomberg)

German companies, excluded by the U.S. from government contracts in Iraq after Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's opposition to the war, are using contacts dating from before the fall of the Iron Curtain to win business.

Rolfeckhard Giermann, East Germany's trade envoy in Baghdad in the 1980s, is helping as many as 20 small and medium-sized companies including Kranbau Eberswalde GmbH and Oddesse GmbH to negotiate contracts with Iraqi businesses for products from fire extinguishers to cranes and sewage systems.

In the decade before German reunification in 1990, East Germany's Communist government sold almost $500 million annually in goods to Iraq, making the Arab country its No. 4 trading partner. As Iraq rebuilds after the U.S.-led war that toppled Saddam Hussein, demand for German products is returning.

``German technology is well known and widely appreciated in Iraq -- there's great potential for future business,'' Giermann said in an interview. His company, Tasco GmbH, is based near Berlin. ---

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