Is Iraq really open for business?

Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki spoke today to a warm welcome at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce:  Iraq, he said, is open for business and it welcomes American companies, which risk losing out if they don’t get more aggressive.  So far, so good.  I can’t agree with Donald Trump, who thought it remarkable we didn’t take the oil with us as we left, but I am surprised how few American companies (other than the Blackwaters of security protection fame) have pursued Iraqi business.

There was something missing in Maliki’s remarks:  he made no promises about a level playing field, about accountability or transparency, about doing business cleanly and on the merits.  Instead he underlined that he and his Iraqi government colleagues will be glad to help American companies do business, a promise that skeptics like me view as dubious at best and downright illicit at worst.  Call me cynical, but if you have to come to the right people in government to help you do business, there is something wrong with the way government has set up business to be done.

I don’t mean to rain on the Iraqis’ parade.  It is good for Maliki, as part of the overall noralization of relations, to court U.S. business and to promise assistance.  It is also good for American companies to get busy competing.  But in an open and competitive system, assistance should only rarely be needed.

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