US embassy cable - 05ABUDHABI711

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