German industry cries foul over US armtwist

Germany’s main industry federation said US pressure to quash Siemens’s $15bn power-plant deal with Iraq is unacceptable and goes to show how President Donald Trump’s avowed “America First” stance is corroding business decisions.

Iraq signed a memorandum of understanding with General Electric (GE) on October 15 after US officials warned Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi that USIraqi relations would be at risk if his government accepted the deal with Siemens. Iraq’s deputy electricity minister for production and projects, Adel Jeryan, said the country also inked an MOU with Siemens on Saturday and that both memorandums are nonbinding.

“To implement the America First doctrine in this way in the global competition of multinational companies is not acceptable,” Joachim Lang, MD of the Federation of German Industries, or BDI, told Welt am Sonntag newspaper. Governments and companies should make deals based on business interests, he said.

A final decision has not yet been made and the Iraqi government has said approval will be based on the nature of the presented proposals.

The deal would be a milestone as both companies are struggling with their power equipment business.

Until the US intervention, Siemens was considered the frontrunner. CEO Joe Kaeser met Abadi in September to discuss plans to revamp Iraq’s power generation and swap out infrastructure built by GE.

The signing on Saturday allows Iraq to “explore implementing our roadmap” for a range of projects, Kaeser said on Twitter at the weekend.

German deputy economy minister Thomas Bareiss, who also lobbied Abadi in September, welcomed Iraq’s latest overture to Siemens.

“Siemens has presented a very convincing overall concept in Iraq” and Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government “supports this long-term process”, Bareiss said in an e-mailed statement.