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> It is untrue to say that Iraq cannot import any medical supplies or > spare parts for medical equipment... > ... the only problem is the high cost of these imported > items and the lack of adequate government funding to purchase them. Jonathan's comments seem to confirm reports that first appeared in 1991. Haris Gazdar and Jean Dreze, two economists then at the London School of Economics, travelled to Iraq as part of an interdisciplinary International Study Team. Their report, published in the journal World Development (1992) as "Hunger and Povery in Iraq, 1991", finds little evidence of price differences between basic goods in Iraq and those in Jordan. This suggested to them that the costs of transporting goods across that border was low. They did, however, find that the Iraqi purchasing power had declined steeply, making Iraqis unable to purchase the goods that were available. The usual indicator of purchasing power decline is the Iraqi dinar - US $ exchange rate. I forget who's pointed out that there's nothing to prevent the homeless in this country from sleeping in hotels and eating in restaurants. It has been used as an analogy to this situation. Colin Rowat Coordinator, Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq http://linux.clare.cam.ac.uk/casi King's College Cambridge CB2 1ST tel: +44 (0)468 056 984 England fax: +44 (0)1223 335 219 -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a discussion list run by Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To be removed/added, email soc-casi-discuss-request@lists.cam.ac.uk, NOT the whole list. Archived at http://linux.clare.cam.ac.uk/~saw27/casi/discuss.html