The Baltimore Jewish Times reported that the firm was pushed into action by a Maryland Jewish activist, Jay Bernstein, an attorney who learned last year that Baltimore-based McCormick & Co., founded in 1889 by a Jewish immigrant, was still selling to Iran.
“It seemed that what we could do is draw attention to McCormick and get them to reconsider,” Bernstein said. So, in January, Bernstein wrote to Freeman Hrabowski III, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and a McCormick board member, asking that he “exert” his influence on McCormick to “do the right thing and end all business dealings with and in Iran.”
Shortly afterward, he received word that McCormick would “cease such sales as long as Iran is subject to the comprehensive sanctions programs imposed by the US government.”
Under those sanctions, Iran may still buy food and medical supplies from the United States. So there is no illegality in the sale of McCormick’s spices and herbs to Iran.
The Baltimore Jewish Times quoted Jim Lynn, McCormick’s director of corporate communications, as saying McCormick distributes its spices to some 100 countries. “But he said the company could not get assurances from certain parties that the products would not be sold by companies connected in some ways to companies that had been blacklisted, so McCormick decided not to sell in Iran,” the Baltimore Jewish Times reported.
The Iran Times asked McCormick how its decision would make any difference if it couldn’t get its clients to refuse to act as intermediaries. McCormick did not reply as of press deadline.
Bernstein said, “Is it going to bring down a regime? No. But McCormick showed a great example of corporate responsibility. And if more companies did what they are doing, the regime in Iran would feel more pressure. It’s gratifying that they were responsive.”