Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TobagoJack who wrote (61286)	3/24/2005 11:50:45 AM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74559

Cultivating a taste for Western goods Along with veils, Tehran's women like to wear Adidas Borzou Daragahi, Chronicle Foreign Service American companies may be officially banned from doing business with Iran, but among young Iranians, America sells Saturday, March 19, 2005 Tehran -- At the Eskan shopping center in northern Tehran, the young men wear Fubu hip-hop clothes and Oakley shades. The young women, wearing scarves that barely adhere to strict Islamic dress codes that require they cover their heads, window-shop in Adidas running shoes. American companies may be officially banned from doing business with Iran, but among young Iranians, America sells. "When something is forbidden, people want it more," said Hamid Reza, an employee of a sporting goods store that sells Western goods. "Iran can't officially get American goods. For this reason the young people want it more." The foreign subsidiaries of the American industrial giants Halliburton and General Electric may have announced plans to slowly pull out of Iran, but Rocky Ansari, a Tehran business consultant who says his clientele list includes the foreign subsidiaries of American firms, says don't believe it. It's business as usual in Iran. "There are many American companies that are doing business with Iran," he said, estimating total imports of American products at $150 million to $200 million a year. The U.S. government exempts food, medicine and even tobacco companies from sanctions, so it's no problem finding Pepsi, Coke or Marlboro cigarettes at the local grocery store. Duracell batteries and Gillette shaving products are also ubiquitous. Duracell has even a started a high-profile billboard campaign. American brands like Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Xerox are on display at the Mirdamad Computer Center in Tehran, the heart of Iran's growing IT business. With 70 million increasingly affluent residents, Iran is becoming an attractive market for computer and electronics retailers. Consultant Siamak Namazi says American firms figure out creative ways of keeping one foot on the ground. "Some are here officially, some are here through some dealer in Dubai," he said. Other American companies with a presence in Iran include Goodyear, Otis Elevators and Caterpillar. Often the European or Middle East offices of an American company might dispatch reps. Ansari says the goods come across land borders, from Iraq and Turkey, for example, as well as via seaports in Europe and especially Dubai, the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom that has become the center of trade in the region. "U.S. authorities know the trade sizes of the tiny Gulf states," says Ansari. "They likely know when a manifest bound for, say, Dubai, is too big for a country of 2 million and is likely heading to Iran."