KUWAIT RESPONSE: IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ARAB LEAGUE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KUWAIT 000153

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/ARP, USTR FOR JBUNTIN

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KBCT PREL ECON ETRD AL KU
SUBJECT: KUWAIT RESPONSE: IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ARAB LEAGUE
BOYCOTT IN KUWAIT

REF: STATE 08509


1. (SBU) Summary: Kuwait Customs Director General Ibrahim
Al-Ghanim downplayed Kuwait's adherence to the Arab League
Boycott during a February 7 meeting with Econoff. The Arab
League Boycott (ALB) Office lies within the Directorate
General of Customs and is directly supervised by the DG.
Al-Ghanim clarified that Kuwait does not have a specific law,
statute or regulation implementing the 1994 GCC declaration,
but that Kuwait has not applied secondary or tertiary aspects
of the ALB since 1991. Al-Ghanim stressed that Kuwait
applies only the primary boycott, and even this has not been
a serious issue in Kuwait in many years. He also affirmed
that Kuwait has removed all firms and entities that were on
the boycott list due to secondary or tertiary boycott prior
to 1991. Al-Ghanim declined the U.S. offer to train officers
in the Boycott office, stating that this office is not active
and is merely a "paper tiger." End Summary.


2. (SBU) During a February 7 meeting with Econoff, Customs DG
Ibrahim Al-Ghanim stressed that Kuwait has not applied
secondary or tertiary aspects of the Arab League boycott
since 1991, well before the 1994 GCC declaration revoking the
boycott. There are no laws, regulations or circulars that
enforce the 1994 GCC declaration, but it has been part of
Kuwait "standard operating procedure" for a very long time,
he said. When asked why no law or regulation has been passed
in this regard, he answered that this would be seen as
unnecessary since secondary or tertiary boycott has not been
an issue for more than 16 years. He added that companies
that were on the boycott list prior to 1991 have been removed
from the list.


3. (U) Kuwait does, however, have laws regarding primary
boycott of Israeli goods. For example, following is the text
of Kuwait Commercial Law No. 68 (1980): "Article 62 is
amended per Decree no. 1 dated January 14, 2001, as follows:
the following are not valid to be trademarks and not
permitted to be registered; Clause 7: Trademarks that "Arab
Boycott Office" has determined are identical or similar to an
Israeli mark, symbol, or logo." Several other sections of
commercial and trade law state similar bans on Israeli
products. Post will send text of these laws by unclassified
email to NEA/ARP Ashley Bagwell and NEA/RA Joe Scovitch.


4. (U) Econoff asked the DG about occasional reports of
tender documents with boycott clauses. He said the GOK has
worked very hard to amend all its tender documents to remove
the boycott clauses. He assured us that all have been
removed as of 2000. He has not seen any cases, complaints or
reports of any tender documents in the last eight years that
allege boycott clauses in tender documents.


5. (SBU) Al-Ghanim declined our offer to have Kuwaiti customs
officers work with USG officials to modify problematic
requests, adding that compliance requests and errors
connected to them are a very rare occurrence. He stressed
that the boycott office only has a staff of three and the
director of the office has been ill for a long time. No real
work is being done by this office, he said. This office
exists merely to "maintain the status quo." Kuwait attends,
but does not actively participate in, all the Arab League
Conferences in Damascus, he admitted, but this is purely to
"avoid undue attention" on this issue in Kuwait. In fact, he
added, in recent years Kuwait has tried to influence other
countries in the Arab League to revoke secondary and tertiary
boycotts. Most recently, according to Al-Ghanim, Kuwait
talked to Morocco and Lebanon about lifting the secondary and
tertiary ban. North African countries are leaning towards
eliminating these boycotts partly because of Kuwaiti
influence, he argued.


6. (SBU) Al-Ghanim continued that the boycott office is open
in name only and does not take serious action against
violators. When they do identify Israeli goods in the local
market, they enforce a nominal fine on the merchant and
confiscate the product, he said. He added that this office
has not referred any such cases to prosecution in many years.
The POC for this office on all boycott-related issues is the
DG of Customs Ibrahim Al-Ghanim. The acting Director of the
Boycott Office is Waleed Al-Hammad. However, only the DG of
Customs speaks on boycott issues.


7. (U) Post has not heard of Kuwaiti officials requesting
compliance with or soliciting information regarding
compliance with boycott of Israel. Nor has the Kuwaiti
government issued any public statements in the last year
supporting or discouraging compliance with the boycott.

KUWAIT 00000153 002 OF 002


Al-Ghanim said that this boycott has not really been an
important issue in Kuwait for a very long time.


8. (U) Al-Ghanim admitted that in the past the Customs office
received numerous letters from U.S. companies complaining
that they were receiving requests from the GOK to comply with
ALB. He assured us that there have been no such incidents
"in several years" and any new reports were unfounded. He is
unaware of any GOK official, entity, office or ministry
making such a request in the last few years. He asked that
the Embassy contact him directly if we receive any such
complaint.


9. (SBU) Al-Ghanim promised to consider issuing circulars
reminding public and private entities to abandon secondary
and tertiary aspects of the boycott. He commented, however,
that such a circular would be unnecessary in Kuwait as this
has not been an issue for many years here. He welcomed USG
Commerce-State teams for technical meetings and assured that
he does not see any obstacle to working with the USG on this
or any other customs-related issue.

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For more reporting from Embassy Kuwait, visit:
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/?cable s

Visit Kuwait's Classified Website:
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/
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MISENHEIMER