WASHINGTON — Repairing ties strained over the Iraq war will no doubt top the agenda of President Bush and his French counterpart Jacques Chirac during their "working dinner" at Brussels' U.S. Embassy Monday night.

But the much-publicized instances of French wines being poured down American sewers and french fries being rebaptized "freedom fries" is well past, officials said.

Just last week at an Atlanta country club, Franco-American relations were celebrated by a hundred of the area's businessmen over salmon canapés, plates of filet mignon and glasses of champagne.

It's just one of many signs that the political rift between France and the United States has caused little to no damage to their economic relations.

At $31.8 billion last year, imports from France driven more by sales of Airbus planes than bottles of Bordeaux reached an all-time high despite a rising euro that makes French products less attractive to American consumers.

French companies with U.S. operations say France's opposition to the Iraq war has had no measurable impact on their profits. Although some French companies took pre-emptive measures to avoid a potential backlash.

Georges Dreyfus, who sells French antiques in Austin, Texas, decided to remove the 21-foot Eiffel Tower from his store's parking lot when anonymous phone calls threatened to "explode" the replica. Two months later, he put the tower back in place and topped it with French, Texan and American flags.

When asked whether his sales had been affected by France's political stance, he said: "Honestly? No." My customers "are above all this. It will not stop them from buying a nice armoire, a work of art or a beautiful thing."

Although French imports were primary targets for boycotts, American affiliates of French companies had even more to lose in the Franco-American turmoil, as they deliver most of the French goods to U.S. consumers. In 2002 – the year before the war started – those companies and their 2,500 subsidiaries had $171 billion in direct investments in the United States, making France the second largest investor in the country, according to a congressional report released last month.

Some, like the hotel chain Sofitel or Dreyfus Antiques, decided to diffuse tensions by removing ostentatious symbols of Frenchness from their businesses, while others resorted to advertising campaigns that emphasized their economic impact on local communities.

"The American subsidiaries of French companies have in fact reacted very promptly by highlighting the jobs they created in the United States and the fact that if somebody were to suffer from a boycott, it would be American employees," said Jean-François Bottin, minister counselor for economic affairs at the French Embassy in Washington.

In 2001, French-owned companies employed 578,600 in the United States, including 50,600 in Texas, 25,800 in Florida, 23,800 in Ohio and 15,700 in Georgia.

Bottin said perceived hostility toward France led to the cancellation of some minor infomercials for French products and convinced some advertising executives to stop pursuing contracts with American firms in an unfavorable climate. But Bottin added that tensions have subsided, and he described economic relations between France and the United States as "excellent."

The French commercial presence in the United States extends well beyond Evian mineral water or Chanel perfume. Heavyweights include Saint-Gobain, which provides a variety of materials including glass for car windows, water pipes and ceramic tiles and Lafarge, which sold record amounts of construction materials in the United States and Canada last year, aided by a housing boom.

Most Americans remain unaware of the French ownership behind some familiar labels. From Sodexho, which provides meals to the U.S. Marine Corps, to Car and Driver magazine, published by Hachette Filipacchi, and the ubiquitous Motel 6 and Red Roof Inns owned by the Accor Group, many French firms have blended innocuously into the American landscape.

"Many French companies are immunized against any attempt of political pressure simply because most people don't know that they are French," Boittin said.

French imports, which rose almost 9 percent in 2004 from the year before, are largely dominated by aircraft, aircraft engines and drugs.

Airbus, the European aircraft manufacturer in which France holds a major stake, has sold more than 2,100 airplanes to American companies. It now leads Boeing in worldwide sales, and its biggest customer is the Los Angeles-based International Lease Finance Corporation, which buys commercial jets and leases them to airlines.

Other clients include United Airlines, America West and US Airways, and last month, Atlanta-based United Parcel Service became the third U.S. company to place an order for the new A 380, the world's first full-length, twin-deck aircraft assembled in France.

French wines constitute only about 3 percent of all French imports, but they bore most of the brunt of French bashing. Robert Nicholson, whose firm International Wines Associates tracks the global wine market, said some retailers may have decided not to promote French wines as a result of the political fallout, but he added that the impact was difficult to quantify.

Partly because of strict production and labeling rules, French wines' share of the U.S. market has been declining for more than 10 years in the face of vigorous competition from Australian wines, especially for bottles that sell for less than $12, Nicholson said.

"U.S. consumers are much more comfortable talking about wines that are cabernet and chardonnay and merlot as opposed to St. Emilion, as opposed to Médoc, as opposed to Bourgogne Aligoté," Nicholson said.

Thanks to a strong reputation in the higher price range, French wines still hold their ground in terms of the value of imports. After peaking at $1.67 million in 2003, provisional numbers for French wines imports seem to be on par with pre-war levels, when they reached $1.4 million, according to U.S. Department of Commerce figures.

French wines still had a monopoly over the dinner organized last week by the Franco-American Chamber of Commerce of Atlanta, said Frédéric Mot, the chamber's marketing manager. A Crystal Peach trophy rewarded Merial for its contribution to the Georgian economy. With its headquarters in Duluth, Ga., 925 employees in the state and $1.8 billion in sales of animal vaccines and drugs, the joint venture between Merck and Aventis is a poster child for transatlantic collaboration.

Merial spokesman Steve Dickinson said "the fit was very good" between Merck's emphasis on drugs for livestock and Aventis' expertise in pet medicine and that politics have not broken the harmonious relationship between Merial's 30 French employees in Duluth and its hundreds of American workers.

"We're very much a big happy family," he said with a laugh. "We leave these kinds of things out of the office."

As for Dreyfus, the antique dealer, he said the Eiffel tower ordeal proved useful after all.

"We used the opportunity to give it a clean," he said.