Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08MUSCAT251
2008-04-01 09:55:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Muscat
Cable title:  

OMAN REITERATES COMMITMENT TO ELIMINATE OUTDATED

Tags:  ETRD ECON PREL MU 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHMS #0251/01 0920955
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 010955Z APR 08
FM AMEMBASSY MUSCAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9434
INFO RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
UNCLAS MUSCAT 000251 

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/ARP, NEA/RA
STATE PASS USTR FOR JBUNTIN
COMMERCE FOR ITA THOFFMAN, PASS TO ANTI-BOYCOTT COMPLIANCE
OFFICE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ETRD ECON PREL MU
SUBJECT: OMAN REITERATES COMMITMENT TO ELIMINATE OUTDATED
ARAB LEAGUE BOYCOTT LANGUAGE

UNCLAS MUSCAT 000251

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/ARP, NEA/RA
STATE PASS USTR FOR JBUNTIN
COMMERCE FOR ITA THOFFMAN, PASS TO ANTI-BOYCOTT COMPLIANCE
OFFICE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ETRD ECON PREL MU
SUBJECT: OMAN REITERATES COMMITMENT TO ELIMINATE OUTDATED
ARAB LEAGUE BOYCOTT LANGUAGE


1. (U) This is an action request; please see paragraph 8.

--------------
Summary
--------------


2. (U) Omani officials reiterated their commitment to
eliminate the use of outdated boycott language during
meetings with officials from the Department of Commerce's
(DOC) Anti-boycott Compliance Office. The Embassy will work
with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to follow-up on
future boycott-related incidents reported to the DOC. End
Summary.

--------------
Pledge to Work Together
--------------


3. (SBU) On March 15, Department of Commerce Anti-boycott
Compliance officials Ned Weant and Frederick Davidson,
accompanied by NEA Regional Affairs officer Joe Scovitch and
Econoff, met with Dr. Said al-Riyami, Economic Expert,
Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and Rashid al-Maskary,
Technical Expert, Oman Tender Board, to discuss the recent
increase in prohibited boycott request language reported by
U.S. companies. (Note: Prohibited requests, while still
relatively few in number, rose from 11 in 2006 to 26 in 2007.
End Note.) Riyami reaffirmed that Oman did not have any
boycott laws in effect, and referred to a 2006 letter from
Commerce and Industry Maqbool bin Ali Sultan to his cabinet
colleagues reminding them of this fact. He further pledged
to work with the DOC and the Embassy to address the continued
presence of outdated language in tender documents.


4. (SBU) Maskary added that the Tender Board would look into
its standard tender templates to ensure that outdated boycott
language did not appear in its documents. He cautioned,
however, that the private sector was outside the purview of
the government, and therefore was at liberty to exclude
potential clients who had business dealings with Israel. DOC
officials responded that since prohibited requests by the
private sector generally referred to outdated Omani boycott
regulations, the government had a duty to remind them that
such language was no longer valid.


5. (SBU) A follow-on meeting with Counselor Hamid bin Saif
al-Rawahi, Deputy Chief of the Economic and Technical

Cooperation Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, drew a
similar commitment to ensure that U.S. commerce is not
impeded by the presence of outdated boycott language in
tenders. Rawahi said that his office would lend necessary
assistance in communicating with colleagues in the Ministry
of Commerce and Industry regarding the presence of such
language.

--------------
Outdated Language the Culprit
--------------


6. (SBU) Anti-boycott officials also met with Mahmoud
al-Fori, Head of Procurement at Sultan Qaboos University
Hospital (SQUH),an entity responsible for 10 of the 26
prohibited requests in 2007. Fori expressed surprise that
documentation used for hospital tenders had included boycott
language, especially in light of the fact that the hospital
had discontinued the use of such terminology in 1996. He
added that in 2006, the hospital's president was reminded by
Commerce and Industry Maqbool bin Ali Sultan via memo that
Oman had no boycott laws in effect. M. Krishna, the
hospital's pharmaceutical purchasing agent, confirmed that
SQUH had not used boycott language in over nine years, and
that it even purchased pharmaceuticals from Israeli company
Teva through its London agent. Fori concluded that private
sector agents had been responsible for providing the wrong
documentation, and stated that the hospital would investigate
future boycott-related reports brought to its attention.


7. (U) Following their meeting at SQUH, the U.S. officials
consulted with Habib Hanna, Country Manager for NCR
Corporation, which reported the presence of boycott language
in tender documents supplied by Omantel, the government's
fixed-line monopoly carrier. (Note: Anti-boycott officials
received a commitment from Omantel's Vice President for
Corporate Affairs in 2005 to discontinue the use of outdated
boycott language. End Note.) Hanna surmised that Omantel
was, on occasion, using outdated tender documents. He noted

that when he had suggested the use of alternative text,
Omantel was more than willing to accept it. He agreed to
bring subsequent findings of boycott language to the
attention of the Embassy for action.

--------------
Action Request
--------------


8. (SBU) The results of the meetings reported above show that
continued use of boycott language in Oman has been the result
of entities using outdated versions of tender documents.
Given the firm commitment provided by Omani officials to
follow-up on future incidents, Embassy requests that the
DOC's Office of Anti-boycott Compliance send documentation in
support of complaints to the Economic/Commercial Officer via
email, so that s/he may coordinate appropriate action with
the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Current Embassy point
of contact is Economic/Commercial Officer Brian Grimm, who
can be reached at GrimmBM@state.gov.
GRAPPO