France: War Has Led to Economic Fallout

ap ^ | March 23, 2003

[sarcasm]

PARIS (AP) -- The economy minister said Sunday that he believes the worst French economic fallout from the war in Iraq had already taken place.

``In the last year, or rather in the last six months, I think the Iraqi events have already created negative consequences that France regrets now,'' Francis Mer told LCI television and RTL radio.

``I'm not saying that to deny the intensity of the Iraqi problems, but the main part of the negative consequences from the Iraqi crisis is behind us,'' he said.

According to a survey by the IFOP agency published Sunday in the French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche, 46 percent of French people worry the war will aggravate economic and other problems in France.

The French unemployment rate held steady at 9.1 percent in January, the most recent figures released. Consumption fell 0.2 percent that month, suggesting that the French economy got off to a weak start in 2003. Also in January, France's consumer confidence index dropped five points to reach its lowest level in five years.

[powderhorn]

This is the way the French have to explain that opposition to the war has been bad for their economy, but once the war got under way it has helped their economy. In general, the stock market all over the world has responded positively to the war. This is a political pill that the French prefer to swallow sideways.

[hedgetrimmer]

March 23, 2003
Nigerian Oil Facilities Threatened
By REUTERS


Filed at 7:08 a.m. ET

WARRI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Militant Ijaw youths threatened on Sunday to blow up oil facilities in the Niger Delta as troops battled to quell tribal warfare that has shut down 16 percent of oil-dependent Nigeria's total ouput.

Ethnic Ijaw warriors who are at war with their Itsekiri rivals said they will blow up crude oil pipelines, flow stations and target the key Escravos terminal if the army deployed to end the violence continued to raze their villages.

FRENCH TotalFinaElf said on Saturday it had shut operations and evacuated staff from its Upomami OML 57 facility with a production capacity of 7,500 bpd because of worsening violence in the oil rich but impoverished western delta.

The Niger Delta, which accounts for most of Nigeria's crude output of around two million bpd, has been on the boil for years, with oil multinationals getting caught in a deadly struggle for oil benefits by local ethnic groups.

More than a dozen security forces have also been killed in the bloodbath, which industry sources have warned could push Nigeria's oil industry to the brink of total shutdown.

Could this be why France is so worried about losing Iraqi oil?

[thinking]

maybe they can get some of the unemployed to clean up the dog poo that covers the streets....

[Mark]

Speaking of enemies of America, these opinions are at N.Y. Post site:

DASCHLE'S POLITICAL DUPLICITY: A DISGRACE TO ALL

March 23, 2003 -- Sen. Tom Daschle sickens me to the core ("Aid & Comfort," Editorial, March 19). I have never heard anyone criticize so blindly along party lines. I hope that the American public takes notice of this guy and never votes someone like him into office again.

Michael Moat

Ridgefield, N.J.

Daschle should resign. He and others of his ilk have used this war to attempt to further their political ambitions, and it's disgusting. And please, Sen. Daschle, don't tell me how you once served in the military and that you are backing the military. If you were in the military, you would have silenced your ambitions and allowed our men and women to go into battle without giving them more cause to think that our country is divided.

Bart Palamaro

Westlake Village, Calif.

For someone who didn't want to politicize the war when his precious protege Sen. Tim Johnson was up for re-election, I find it shocking that Daschle would make such comments when American troops are in harm's way.

Stephen Sulecki

Manhattan

Tony Blair, who is not even American, is risking his job to help the United States. Daschle, who was elected to serve the people, turns around and bashes his own government. Though I'm a registered Democrat, I will never vote for another Democrat again.

R.E. Domingo

Elmhurst

That Daschle is titled a leader - minority or otherwise - is pitiful. This man speaks out of both sides of his mouth. He needs to duct tape one side shut.

Anthony Bonanza

Raleigh, N.C.

[teletech]

If France thinks their economic woes are over, the are even more deluded than I thought. They are FAR from over!

[PeoplesRepublicOfWashington]

Boycott South Dakota until the people there either recall Daschle or vote him out of office.

[gitmo]

Wait till Jaques Chiracstrap tries to renew those oil deals with New Iraq. Or they get placed on the Federal list of unfriendlies.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

``I'm not saying that to deny the intensity of the Iraqi problems, but the main part of the negative consequences from the Iraqi crisis is behind us,''

If I, and 260 million very pissed Americans have anything to say about it your problems are only beginning buck-o.

[madison10]

Those twits! This is not economic fall-out from the war...it's economic fall-out from France not JOINING the war. Vive le Boycott!

[DeuceTraveler]

It couldn't be an inept socialist economy.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

But it will still have an anus to spew its
sh*t !

[xJones]

``In the last year, or rather in the last six months, I think the Iraqi events have already created negative consequences that France regrets now,'' Francis Mer told LCI television and RTL radio.

Will somebody tell that truffle snorter that France is going to regret those "negative consequences" even more? We have been learning the hard way who to trust, and the snail suckers aren't one of the trust worthy. There's this little knife marked "U.N. Chirac" sticking out of our backs.

[freekitty]

And may I ask, France, whose fault is that?

[Walkin Man]

Poor froggys, who will they sell the equipment to make WMD now?

[ghostrider]

...the worst French economic fallout from the war in Iraq had already taken place.

Hopefully, the fallout has only just begun. I have no plans to buy anything "French" until that country has been flattened by a horrible depression. Then, all I will buy is gift certificates for our soldiers to take their women to the local one hour motel.

[fuzzy122]

Hoo-rah!

[The_Pickle]

And we should give a [expletive deleted] about the French economy why?

[wildbill]

I doubt seriously that the true effects of our national revulsion at the perfidy of the French have been seen. They dictated the terms of 1441 and had no intention of seeing them carried out.

I simply haven't had time yet to reject a French product over one from another country. If I go to Europe on vacation, I'd rather see Italy than France. I suspect there are a lot of people like me!

[Jumper]

France cannot "afford", either financially or politically, to lose Arab Trade Partners in the Middle East. America spent the past 30-years trying to prevent the spread of nuclear, chemical and weapons technology to Arabs preaching "death to Israel, death to America". During this timeframe, our friends the French have tied their trade and political fortunes to arming America's enemies, and oftentimes in violation of the UN embargos. Doing business on the black market is always very profitable. Today, France stands on the verge of isolation in the political world and her investments abroad no longer return the dividends required to maintain the socialist system (Between the devaluation of US/Global Stocks and the increased value of theEuro). The War on Terrorism boils down to a war on French Trade interests and against French Allies. France will see her economy take a 3-5% hit on Iraq alone. Germany, Russia and China all have varying interests in the Arab countries economically/politically as well and will also lose "influence". Given the fact that the USA and Brition have had very little financial interest in Iraq, the cost of war will be offset in the short term by revenues generated by contracts and oil prices dropping, and in the long term by political stability in the Region, but most important of all, Chiraq's French government will fall from power in the next election cycle as French people realize the mismanagement of their political-economic relations world-wide placed too much emphasize on questionable Arab partnerships. Economic reality alone will set the tone for a more conservative French government which will be less vocal and more aligned with Western interests.

The Heritage Foundation has compiled some interesting figures on French economic involvement in Iraq.

Bottom line is France will pay a heavy price for her failure to spread her trade out among more stable nations.