On Tuesday we heard from Fox News and others that French President Jacques Chirac is still against a deadline for Iran to stop developing a nuclear weapons program. NewsMax has an article as to why.

The United States has little to lose if sanctions are imposed. America imports only about $100 million of goods from Iran, mostly rugs, nuts and juice, while exporting about $55 million in cigarettes, pharmaceuticals, and wood pulp.

But total trade between Iran and permanent Security Council members Russia, China, and France, plus Germany, is expected to top $22 billion this year, up from $18 billion last year, The Wall Street Journal reports.

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The Journal reports that these commercial ties, along with Iran’s position as holder of the second-largest oil reserves, “put a built-in limit on how far industrial powers will go.”

And a senior U.S. official concedes: “Anything that really restricts trade will be hard, if not impossible, to get.”

Given France and Germany’s involvement with Iraq that caused them to drag their feet and force the U.N. to generate 14 resolutions before we went in and got Saddam Hussein, it seems clear that sanctions by themselves aren’t going to work. Germany and France are putting market before their own soverignty. This may be a short-sighted decision, but it’s theirs to make.

I find it ironic and sad commentary that it is cheaper to work for totalitarian regimes with inherent limited decision-making capacity than it is to work in the “free” market in the United States. We have to remove regulations and trade barriers for Germany and France’s euros to float our way again.