Honeywell Is Pressured to End Iran Ties - Businessweek
Honeywell Is Pressured to End Iran Ties
Honeywell, based in Morristown, N.J., also faces renewed pressure from the advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran. UANI on May 18 asked the General Services Administration and Defense Secretary Robert Gates to declare Honeywell ineligible for government contracts until it ends the participation of its wholly owned British subsidiary, UOP, in an upgrade of Iran's Arak refinery and stops selling security equipment to Tehran. The Senate version of the legislation would accomplish much the same.
While Honeywell's dealings with Iran don't violate current law, getting it and other companies to stop using subsidiaries is a matter of asserting America's "moral authority," says UANI President Mark Wallace. It's a lot harder to pressure foreign companies to pull out of Iran "if we can't even convince our homegrown companies to do that," he adds.
Rob Ferris, a Honeywell spokesman, says the company is legally bound to honor existing contracts, though it has committed to accepting no new business in Iran "in anticipation of a change in U.S. law." That's an "inadequate" response for a company that received $12.9 billion in federal contracts from 2000 to March of this year, making it the largest recipient of federal funds operating in Iran, Wallace says.
President Barack Obama regards Honeywell's Cote as one of the CEOs he most admires. Obama named him to a bipartisan budget deficit commission. UANI has some White House clout of its own. It lists as a founder Richard C. Holbrooke, though he resigned from the group before he joined the Administration as special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Gary Samore, senior director for nonproliferation at the National Security Council, was an original board member.
One success story, says Wallace, is Caterpillar (CAT), which in February barred its overseas subsidiaries from accept- ing orders from Iran. If Honeywell doesn't do the same, he adds, it should brace for more pressure, including a naming-and-shaming ad campaign now in the works.
Honeywell Is Pressured to End Iran Ties - Businessweek
Honeywell Is Pressured to End Iran Ties
Honeywell, based in Morristown, N.J., also faces renewed pressure from the advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran. UANI on May 18 asked the General Services Administration and Defense Secretary Robert Gates to declare Honeywell ineligible for government contracts until it ends the participation of its wholly owned British subsidiary, UOP, in an upgrade of Iran's Arak refinery and stops selling security equipment to Tehran. The Senate version of the legislation would accomplish much the same.
While Honeywell's dealings with Iran don't violate current law, getting it and other companies to stop using subsidiaries is a matter of asserting America's "moral authority," says UANI President Mark Wallace. It's a lot harder to pressure foreign companies to pull out of Iran "if we can't even convince our homegrown companies to do that," he adds.
Rob Ferris, a Honeywell spokesman, says the company is legally bound to honor existing contracts, though it
 has committed to accepting no new business in Iran "in anticipation of a change in U.S. law." That's an "inadequate" response for a company that received $12.9 billion in federal contracts from 2000 to March of this year, making it the largest recipient of federal funds operating in Iran, Wallace says.
President Barack Obama regards Honeywell's Cote as one of the CEOs he most admires. Obama named him to a bipartisan budget deficit commission. UANI has some White House clout of its own. It lists as a founder Richard C. Holbrooke, though he resigned from the group before he joined the Administration as special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Gary Samore, senior director for nonproliferation at the National Security Council, was an original board member.
One success story, says Wallace, is Caterpillar (CAT), which in February barred its overseas subsidiaries from accept- ing orders from Iran. If Honeywell doesn't do the same, he adds, it should brace for more pressure, including a naming-and-shaming ad campaign now in the works.