US government on UAE port management company controversy
United Arab Emirates-USA, Politics, 3/2/2006

Deputy Spokesman at the US Department Of State, Adam Ereli, was asked yesterday that "A lot of lawmakers on Congress, particularly in the Democratic Party, yesterday raised a lot of objections about the deal, specifically that the United Arab Emirates enforces an Arab boycott of Israel. Is this country really an ally if it's enforcing a boycott against a major US ally?"

Ereli said "A couple of points. One is the UAE is our third largest trading partner in the region. Point number two, the UAE has been a close and steadfast ally in the war on terror and including, I guess, Afghanistan. Third, I think the UAE is supportive of our efforts and the efforts of the international community to bring peace between Arabs and Israelis and specifically Israelis and Palestinians.

Finally, on the boycott issue, yes, the UAE observes the Arab League's primary boycott of Israel. It has renounced or does not enforce the secondary and tertiary aspects of the boycott, which means that it does business with companies, including American companies, that do business with Israel.

This is -- obviously, you know, the United States wants to see the boycott against Israel dropped completely by everybody, and that's our position and we want to see that. We are working toward that, frankly, with the Government of the UAE and we are working with that in the context of negotiating a free trade agreement which is designed to broaden regional economic integration within the context of the President's Middle East free trade agreement. If you're going to have a free trade agreement, then -- with any country but particularly a country in the Middle East, then this boycott needs to be dealt with, the boycott issue needs to be dealt with.

We have taken a number of steps with the UAE to address this issue. The most recent step was a joint State-Commerce anti-boycott compliance team, which visited the UAE in February. I would note that Under Secretary of Commerce McCormick will visit in March to discuss trade issues of which this will be one. So we are committed; I think the UAE is committed to resolving these boycott issues as part of its FTA negotiation and negotiation process.

And finally I'd make the point that having said all this, the issue of Dubai Ports World and its investment in the United States is a -- and a CFIUS is a security-related issue and all of this we're talking about has nothing to do with security."

Asked "These lawmakers, democratic senators are saying that because the UAE, if you look at the voting record of the United Nations and things like that, they don't necessarily side with the United States. Do you feel that this is an ally that's on your side with your international agenda?"

Ereli answered "Very definitely. The UAE has a strong record of being on the right side of the fundamental issue, which is free trade, regional peace and security and the global war on terror. And again, I think that as part of this review process we need to keep a focus on what the issue is. The issue is, is there a threat to national security here. And the basis for that is looking at Dubai Ports World; that's what the review process is focusing on. Obviously, I think we want to answer and be responsive to -- and this is something that US officials across the board have made clear, we want to answer and be responsive to concerns of members of Congress and that's what we're going to do. And certainly within the new review and investigative phase, we're going to follow through on that. I think that's about it."

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