The following is an archived copy of a message sent to a Discussion List run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
Views expressed in this archived message are those of the author, not of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
[Main archive index/search] [List information] [Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq Homepage]
Thanks for tracking that down, Richard. The sentence that seems to be the one that we're interested in is: > [One market trader] said prices were cheaper than ever > and things that were once beyond most people's reach > were now affordable. This makes much more sense to me than the statement that most Iraqis could afford luxury goods. What I also found interesting about this, is the claim that prices have fallen. If anyone had any insights into why that was, I'd appreciate hearing them. The reason that this interests me is that I've been under the understanding that the sanctions have not made it more costly to move goods across the Iraqi border: since 1991, the Jordanian border has been open; importers are only inspected now, as I understand it, when they submit themselves for inspection. They do this if they're importing 'oil for food' goods (as they need the inspection to receive their money) but didn't tend to otherwise, I thought. If prices are falling, and if the borders have not imposed significant costs for some time, where are the price cuts coming from? It's possible that the improving living conditions mean that imports are occurring in larger quantities, dropping their unit prices. Maybe there's more competition in the import business, forcing importers to drop their prices. Best wishes, Colin Rowat work | Room 406, Department of Economics | The University of Birmingham | Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK | web.bham.ac.uk/c.rowat | (+44/0) 121 414 3754 | (+44/0) 121 414 7377 (fax) | c.rowat@bham.ac.uk personal | (+44/0) 7768 056 984 (mobile) | (+44/0) 7092 378 517 (fax) | (707) 221 3672 (US fax) | colinrowat@yahoo.com _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk