Humanitarian British Concerns : British companies missing out completely on the Iraqi oil rehabilitation deals . Campaign to stop British firms being cut out by US !!!

Guardian Unlimited Politics | Special Reports | Leak reveals ministers' fears over Iraqi contracts: "Leak reveals ministers' fears over Iraqi contracts

Campaign to stop British firms being cut out by US

Terry Macalister
Friday February 13, 2004
The Guardian

The British government, concerned about the failure of British companies to win reconstruction work in Iraq, is making a behind-the-scenes effort to lobby Washington.
Confidential documents seen by the Guardian show that ministers and officials are being mobilised to try to head off a domestic political embarrassment to Tony Blair.
Brian Wilson, the prime minister's special representative on overseas trade, and Mike O'Brien, the minister of international trade and foreign affairs, are both being dispatched to Washington next week.
Mr O'Brien is breaking off a family holiday in America to talk to US officials in the run-up to a new round of Iraq contracts being awarded next month.
Briefing papers seen by the Guardian reveal the frustration at the top of government over British companies missing out completely on the Iraqi oil rehabilitation deals on January 16.
'Despite extensive lobbying by ministers and officials for significant UK content in these projects, none of the UK bids (from AMEC, Foster Wheeler and the Wood Group) were successful,' says a note attached to other documents from Gregor Lusty, head of the Iraq unit at UK Trade & Investment, an arm of the Department of Trade and Industry.
In another document Mr O'Brien asks the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, and other officials to do all they can to ensure that UK companies do not miss out again.
'All ministers in the government who are in frequent touch with their US opposite numbers [need] to ensure that the US administration are in no..."