US embassy cable - 04ABUDHABI3324

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABU DHABI 003324 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA, NEA/ARP, NEA/PI 
STATE FOR EB A/S WAYNE 
STATE PASS USTR FOR AUSTR NOVELLI 
USDOC FO RBIS/WEANT 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/22/2014 
TAGS: KBCT, ELAB, ECON, ETRD, TC 
SUBJECT: TIFA UPDATE: UAE MOVING ON ARAB LEAGUE BOYCOTT AND 
LABOR LAW REWRITE 
 
REF: A. A) ABU DHABI 3270 
     B. B) ABU DHABI 3205 
     C. C) ABU DHABI 3054 
 
Classified by Ambassador Michele Sison for reasons 1.5 (b and 
d) 
 
1. (SBU) Summary:  Pursuing our TIFA discussions, MFA 
Undersecretary Abdullah Rashid Al-Noaimi told the Ambassador 
on 9/22 that MFA is working closely with the Ministry of 
Economy and Commerce on resolving Arab League Boycott 
concerns.  He also confirmed that the new draft labor law was 
under technical review and suggested that the review was 
about 80% completed.  He stressed that the UAEG viewed its 
unique third-country national labor demographic as a security 
issue. End Summary. 
 
2. (SBU) MFA U/S Abdullah Rashid Al-Noaimi (defacto number 2) 
told the Ambassador on September 22 that the MFA had met with 
the Ministry of Economy and Commerce (MoEC) to work on 
resolving the Arab League Boycott issues, based on the 
information that we had provided them on Netafim and broader 
boycott concerns.  He added that MFA Assistant Undersecretary 
for International Cooperation Mohammed Abdul Jaleel (his new 
point person for managing strategic relationships) was 
following up vigorously with MoEC on this matter.  Al-Noaimi 
explained that revising the tender and procurement documents 
would be a process that could take time, but that the UAE was 
taking the necessary actions. 
 
3. (SBU)  Al-Noaimi also told Ambassador that the revised 
draft labor law was under review in the Technical Legislative 
Committee and he thought it was about 80% complete. 
Ambassador pressed him to ensure that the UAEG delegation to 
the TIFA Council meeting was prepared to articulate its 
thoughts on labor in detail during the discussions.  MFA will 
sensitize MoL to the importance of the issue and we will be 
meeting with the Ministry of Labor Undersecretary on Saturday 
9/25 to follow-up.  Al-Noaimi confirmed that the UAE 
consulted with the ILO on its labor law and was keenly aware 
of ILO's concerns. 
 
4. (C)  Al-Noaimi underscored that the labor issue was a 
sensitive national security matter for the UAEG.  He noted 
that expatriates make up the overwhelming majority of the 
population (80%-85%) and that the expatriate population was 
very diverse (Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, etc.).  He 
stressed that the UAE certainly wanted to protect workers' 
rights, but also needed to protect its own security.  He 
cited the problem of illegal migration of Afghans and 
Pakistanis across the Omani border as one of the problems 
that the UAE faced, implying that it was relatively easy for 
these illegal migrants to fit into the large South Asian 
population in the UAE.  On the other hand, he noted that the 
Department of Labor tended to side with workers over 
employees in a significant number of the cases on which it 
ruled. 
 
SISON