EMIRATI PREPARATIONS FOR FTA TALKS CONTINUE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABU DHABI 000711

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EB, NEA, NEA/ARPI, NEA/PI
STATE PASS USTR FOR BELL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/15/2015
TAGS: ETRD ECON TC
SUBJECT: EMIRATI PREPARATIONS FOR FTA TALKS CONTINUE

REF: ABU DHABI 600

Classified By: Ambassador Michele J. Sison for reasons 1.4 (b and d)


1. (C) Summary: In meetings over the past several days, we
have gained more of a sense of how the UAEG is preparing for
its upcoming FTA talks with the U.S. In addition to the
formal addition of MinEcon Sheikha Lubna Al-Qasimi as a
co-chair of the negotiating committee (reftel),it appears
that Minister of Information Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed
Al-Nahyan is playing an active role in the UAE's
preparations, as is Minister of Labor Al-Ka'abi. The UAE
continues to have concerns about reconciling national
security concerns with meeting ILO standards on rights of
association and collective bargaining. The Ministry of
Economy is following-up on secondary and tertiary boycott
cases with a goal of reducing them to zero. The UAEG also
approached the Australians for information on negotiating
with the USG and to express interest in negotiating an FTA
with Australia. The UAE press is increasingly discussing the
upcoming negotiations. End Summery.


Labor
--------------


2. (C) On February 13, Ambassador talked with Minister of
Information, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed (ABZ) about his recent
visit to Washington. ABZ said that he had had excellent
meetings with USTR Ambassador Zoellick and with members of
Congress. He explained that House Foreign Relations
Committee Chairman Hyde had committed to sending a letter to
his colleagues urging support for an FTA. Ambassador asked
ABZ how his discussions on the labor chapter of the FTA had
gone, noting our serious concerns about weaknesses in the
current UAE labor law. She noted that we understood that the
proposed draft law would permit labor unions and urged ABZ to
have the UAEG work closely with the International Labor
Organization to ensure that its revised labor law (and
possible new labor union law) were ILO compliant. ABZ
replied that he had explained, to his U.S. interlocutors, UAE
national security concerns about allowing expatriate workers
unrestricted union rights. He noted that, if it were just a
question of allowing UAE citizens to establish and to join
unions, there would be no problem. ABZ said that he,
MinState for Finance Khirbash, Minister of Economy and
Planning Sheikha Lubna Al-Qasimi, and Minister of Labor
Al-Ka'abi would need to "sit down," upon Al-Ka'abi's return,
and discuss the revised labor law and its relationship with
the FTA process. An ILO-compliant solution could be found,
he predicted. (Note: Al-Ka'abi and his senior staff are
outside the UAE. We will be following-up with the ministry
upon their return to again urge that they work closely with
the ILO.)

UAE interagency working on preparations
--------------


3. (C) On February 13, EconChief met with MinFin A/US Khalid
Al-Bustani to discuss ongoing preparations for the FTA.
Al-Bustani stated that the February 7 cabinet decree setting
up a negotiating committee was helping to facilitate the
UAEG's preparations. For example, he explained, the Minister
of Finance could now officially agree to treat the
negotiating texts as confidential. He emphasized that the
UAEG had already been working to prepare for the negotiations
and its negotiators were reviewing U.S. FTA's with Bahrain
and other countries. He explained that the Ministry of
Finance had set up a web site to facilitate the access to
information for UAEG negotiators. This site included either
copies of FTA texts or links to them. Al-Bustani emphasized
that "his colleagues" in the UAEG were putting him under
"heavy pressure" to produce the actual U.S.-UAE draft text.
He explained that other agency officials were complaining
that they were not able to review this draft text, but were
forced to rely on U.S. agreements with other countries.
EconChief stressed that these published FTAs would give the
UAE a good idea of what to look for and urged Al-Bustani to
contact USTR and the Embassy if the UAEG needed clarification
on any point in the texts or any additional information. In
a February 14 meeting, MinEcon A/US Abdullah Saleh told
EconChief that the UAE was holding negotiating committee
meetings and would be holding one on February 15 to prepare
for the negotiations.

Arab League Boycott - Process is Working
--------------


4. (C) EconChief told Saleh that, subsequent to the Ministry
of Economy's actions, the number of boycott related cases had
declined, but that the Department of Commerce had still
received 11 boycott cases over the last quarter and we wanted
to work with the Ministry to continue to resolve this issue.
Saleh took the list of offending companies and instructed his
staff (in Arabic) to "get the names" of the people in charge
of the companies and their contact details and to follow-up.
He turned to EconChief and said, in English, "we will get to
zero." We will be reviewing these issues next week with
Economy Minister Lubna Al-Qasimi.

UAE - Australian FTA
--------------


5. (C) Ambassador and EconChief also met with the Australian
Ambassador and two officials from the Department of Foreign
Affairs and Trade (Stephen Deady, the First Assistant
Secretary for Trade Development and Paul Foley, the Assistant

SIPDIS
Secretary, Middle East and Africa) to discuss Australian -

SIPDIS
UAE contacts on free trade. They explained that the UAE had
expressed interest in negotiating an FTA with Australia, but
had also wanted to "pick their brains" about negotiating an
FTA with the U.S. According to Deady, based on UAEG
questions, it appeared as if they had been preparing for
their upcoming negotiations. He described the questions as
thoughtful and "informed." Deady also said that their
questions gave him the opportunity to emphasize that
Australia would also be looking for a similarly "high
quality" FTA.

Media Attention
--------------


6. (U) There is increasing media interest in the UAE in the
upcoming FTA negotiations. More and more articles are
appearing in the local press and reporters are beginning to
contact our public affairs section for background information
and remarks on the upcoming negotiations. In addition, we
are seeing an increasing debate in the UAE media over the
merits of free trade. In a February 13 meeting MFA U/S
Abdullah Rashid Al-Noaimi told visiting NEA/ARPI Office
Director and DCM that the UAE media had already started
debating the FTA. He welcomed this debate and emphasized
that the UAEG welcomed hearing opposing views (from, for
example, former Minister of Communication Ahmed Humaid
Al-Tayer). He specifically referred to the AFL/CIO's
testimony at the USTR public hearing and said that the UAEG
wanted to hear their position.
SISON