U.S. Bid Policy Elicits Outrage
WASHINGTON — Facing outrage from Europe, Russia and Canada, the Bush administration Wednesday appeared to soften its decision to ban countries that did not support the war in Iraq from seeking $18.6 billion in prime contracts to rebuild the nation.
President Bush phoned the leaders of France, Germany and Russia and promised to "keep lines of communication open" to discuss which countries would be allowed to bid, a White House official said. Bush had placed the calls to urge them to help restructure Iraq's massive debt, but that seemed less likely given the anger over the policy.
White House officials insisted that their policy of excluding antiwar nations from choice business deals in Iraq was unchanged. But they said they would be flexible in deciding which countries had done enough to qualify.
At a briefing, a senior defense official said the roster of 63 eligible countries "is not a fixed, closed list
The official suggested that a country might qualify for the list simply by declaring itself a member of the Iraq coalition, a step that such war opponents as France and Germany might find politically unpalatable.
Officials made no mention of such flexibility when they disclosed the policy Tuesday. Though everyone would be eligible to become a subcontractor, the policy of blocking Russia and many European countries from seeking a prime contract touched a political nerve, and European opponents argued that the U.S. policy might violate international trade rules.
The U.S. action on contracts reopened wounds from the run-up to the war, which began March 20. Trying to minimize the effect, White House officials noted that the directive applied only to the $18.6 billion in U.S. reconstruction aid and not to an additional $13 billion pledged by countries during a conference in Madrid, or to any other funds that might come through international organizations or to subcontractors.
But antiwar countries complained that the Bush administration, despite its recent appeals for international help in rebuilding Iraq, had punished them by denying access to lucrative projects.
Russia warned that the U.S. could endanger any chance that Moscow might comply with Washington's requests to restructure the $8 billion that Iraq owed Russia. France said it would look into the legality of the U.S. move. Germany called the Pentagon directive "unacceptable" and an example of "extremely selfish economic lobbying."
