Iran buys American, and we're glad to sell

WASHINGTON — Nuclear weapons? No way. But there are plenty of items on Iran's shopping list that the United States is more than happy to supply: cigarettes, brassieres, bull semen and more.

U.S. exports to Iran grew more than tenfold during President Bush's years in office even as he accused it of nuclear ambitions and sponsoring terrorists. America sent more cigarettes to Iran, at least $158 million worth under Bush, than any other product.

Other surprising shipments during the Bush administration: fur clothing, sculptures, perfume, musical instruments and military apparel. Top states shipping goods to Iran are California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin, according to an analysis by the Associated Press of seven years of U.S. government trade data.

Despite increasingly tough rhetoric toward Iran, which Bush has called part of an "axis of evil," U.S. trade in a range of goods survives on-again, off-again sanctions originally imposed nearly three decades ago.

The rules allow sales of agricultural commodities, medicine and a few other categories of goods. The exemptions are designed to help Iranian families even as the United States pressures Iran's leaders.

"I understand that these exports have increased," Gonzalo Gallegos, a State Department spokesman, said Tuesday when asked about the AP's findings.

"However, we believe that they are increasing to a segment of the population that we want to reach out to, we want to know and understand that the U.S. government, the U.S. people want to be friends with them, want to work with them to integrate them into the world economy and become partners in the future."

The government tracks exports to Iran using details from shipping records.

U.S. law enforcement believes Iran is trying to acquire U.S. military technology, including aircraft parts that can sell for pennies on the dollar compared with what the Pentagon paid.

Iran received at least $620,000 in aircraft parts and $19,600 worth of aircraft during Bush's terms.

Iran relies on spare parts from other countries to keep its commercial and military aircraft flying. In some cases, U.S. sanctions allow shipments of aircraft parts for safety upgrades for Iran's commercial passenger jets.

The fact that the United States sells anything to Iran is news to some.

"Until you just told me that about Iran, I'm not sure I knew we did any business with Iran," said Fred Wetherington, a tobacco grower in Hahira, Ga., and chairman of Georgia's tobacco commission. "I thought because of the situation between our two governments, I didn't think we traded with them at all, so I certainly didn't know they were getting any cigarettes."

The United States sent Iran $546 million in goods from 2001 through last year, government figures show. It exported roughly $146 million worth last year compared with $8.3 million in 2001, Bush's first year in office. Even adjusted for inflation, that is more than a tenfold increase.

Exports to Iran are a politically loaded but tiny part of U.S. trade. The United States counted more than $1 trillion in world exports last year. The value of U.S. shipments last year to Canada, America's top trading partner, was more than 1,000 times the value of shipments to Iran.

Top U.S. exports to Iran over Bush's years in office are corn, $68 million; chemical wood pulp, soda or sulfate, $64 million; soybeans, $43 million; medical equipment, $27 million; vitamins, $18 million; bull semen, $12.6 million; and vegetable seeds, $12 million, according to the AP's analysis of government trade data.

The value of cigarettes sold to Iran was more than twice that of the No. 2 category on the export list: vaccines, serums and blood products, $73 million.