Eleven Finnish companies traded with Iraq during Saddam's final years
UN: Nothing necessarily illegal in Finns' activities
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A total of ten Finnish companies were involved in goods trade with Iraq during the final phases of the reign of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, when Iraq was under an international trade embargo. The only legal trade with Iraq took place under the United Nations-administered Food for Oil programme.
In addition to the ten other companies, the energy company Fortum was involved in at least one fairly small oil deal with Iraq.
The information comes from an interim report by an independent group investigating allegations of corruption in the programme. The 65-member group was named by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and is chaired by the former head of the United States Federal Reserve, Paul Volcker. It was set up to investigate allegations that Saddam himself, and others, may have used the programme to amass personal wealth.
The interim report emphasises that the 248 companies on the list of those who traded with Iraq under the programme did not necessarily do anything wrong. Possible violations of the terms of the programme are to be investigated later.
The largest Finnish company to be involved in trade with Saddam's Iraq was the Kone concern, through three companies under its ownership. They sold nearly 3.7 million US dollars worth of spare parts for elevators, medical equipment, and silos, as well as steel wire.
ABB Service and Beamex sold parts for oil production equipment, the former for USD 1.65 million, and the latter for USD 134,000. Orion Pharma International and Inter Orion AG sold medicines and chemicals worth just under half a million dollars, and two other pharmaceutical companies, Leiras and Santen were involved in deals worth USD 346,000 and USD 118,000 respectively.
The total amount of Finnish trade with Saddam's Iraq was 7.5 million dollars, putting Finland in 55th place among 75 countries. Saddam's largest trading partners were Russia (more than 3,300 million dollars), France, and Egypt.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 25.10.2004 - TODAY |
 Eleven Finnish companies traded with Iraq during Saddam's final years |
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