Giant retailers Wal-Mart, JC Penney and Sears, Roebuck could stock Iraqi-made leather jackets and clothes in outlets across the United States by Christmas, an Iraqi official said on Sunday.
Top Iraqi and US officials said that a number of Iraqi textile and leather factories are set to sign contracts with the retailers, which would launch their products on the cut-throat US market. "It is a modest beginning of capturing of a market," said Iraqi Deputy Industry Minister Sami al-Araji, speaking in English at a press conference.
Araji said negotiations with the retailers are being conducted by a US team headed by Paul Brinkley, deputy under-secretary of defence for business transformation.
"But soon we would be holding direct talks. We are ready to transfer goods to these stores," Araji said. An initial shipment would be 10,000 to 12,000 leather jackets from a Baghdad factory, 20,000 to 25,000 ready-made suits from one in the central Shiite city of Najaf and teenage clothes from another in the northern city of Mosul, he said.
This is the "first push... it is to introduce the American public to Iraqi products at a competitive price," he said, adding the goods would be displayed only at a limited number of outlets in the United States. Araji expects to sell an Iraqi readymade suit for around 80 to 90 dollars to middle-class Americans.