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Viewing cable 06MANAMA362, VISIT OF COMMERCE ANTI-BOYCOTT COMPLIANCE STAFF

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
06MANAMA362 2006-03-08 09:24 2011-08-24 01:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Manama
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

080924Z Mar 06
UNCLAS MANAMA 000362 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ARP, NEA/PI, NEA/RA, EB 
COMMERCE FOR BIS - W WYSONG AND N WEANT 
ALSO FOR ITA/MAC/AMESA - T HOFFMAN 
ALSO FOR OGC/CLDP - J FILPI 
USTR FOR J BUNTIN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ETRD ETTC PREL BA ECTRD REGION
SUBJECT: VISIT OF COMMERCE ANTI-BOYCOTT COMPLIANCE STAFF 
 
 
Sensitive but unclassified; please protect accordingly.  Not 
for Internet distribution. 
 
1.  (SBU) Commerce anti-boycott compliance senior policy 
analyst Frederick Davidson, Commerce senior compliance 
officer Cathleen Ryan, and State regional affairs officer 
Danielle Monosson visited Bahrain February 14-15 and met with 
government officials and business people concerning the 
boycott of Israel.  In their meeting with Dr. Jameel Al 
Alawi, Ministry of Cabinet Affairs Director of Agreements and 
Treaties, the team explained that there had been a tremendous 
reduction in the number of Bahraini requests for boycott 
language in business documents over the past decade.  In 2005 
there were nine prohibited requests, and the goal was to 
bring that number to zero.  Al Alawi said that the tender 
board prepares all government contracts and some employees at 
the board may occasionally use forms that contain old 
language.  He noted that Finance Minister Shaikh Ahmed bin 
Mohammed Al Khalifa had issued a circular to all ministries 
and government agencies in 2005 instructing them to remove 
all language about the boycott from contracts. 
 
2.  (SBU) Ryan stated that boycott language also appears 
occasionally in banks' letters of credit.  Al Alawi said the 
government cannot force private businesses to change language 
in their business correspondence but agreed that the Bahrain 
Monetary Agency could inform the banks that boycott language 
is not necessary under Bahraini law. 
 
3.  (SBU) The anti-boycott team also met with Finance 
Ministry Director of Economic Planning Yusuf Humood and 
Ministry of Commerce trade official Eman Al Dossary.  Humood 
said that the GOB had closed the Israel boycott office in 
2005, meaning that enforcement of the primary boycott in 
Bahrain was not possible.  This move was in keeping with the 
long term policy of removing the direct presence of the 
government from the economy.  Al Dossary said that Bahrain 
was fully committed to its WTO obligations, including 
permitting trade with all other WTO members (read Israel). 
 
4.  (SBU) The team also spoke with representatives of Parsons 
and Black and Veatch, two American companies with a presence 
in Bahrain.  The Parsons executive said that his insistence a 
few years ago on removing any boycott language from 
government contracts may have contributed to his lack of 
winning new business for a period.  For the past 18 months, 
however, he had won several contracts and government 
officials had responded favorably to any requests to alter 
language in contracts. 
 
MONROE