Dec

15

UAE to BIS: “Huh?”

Posted by at 3:11 pm on December 15, 2006
Category: BIS

DubaiThe UAE was apparently as surprised as I was by the veiled threats of action delivered at WITA yesterday by BIS Assistant Secretary Chris Padilla. During his speech, Padilla indicated that unspecified sanctions against the UAE were imminent because of diversion of U.S. origin goods from the Emirates to Iran and Syria.

Abdulla Bin Ahmed Al-Saleh, undersecretary of the Ministry of the Economy of the UAE, had this to say:

This is truly a surprising claim and I am sure it will raise many reservations. Actually our cooperation and coordination with several U.S. government departments over this issue is very close and effective. . . .We are very happy with this cooperation and consistently working to make it even stronger.

Not to be overly cynical here but since the UAE trades regularly with Iran and Syria, the occasional diversion of U.S. goods to both those countries really doesn’t ruin anyone’s day in Dubai. So of course they are happy with the current state of affairs.

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Copyright © 2006 Clif Burns. All Rights Reserved.
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2 Comments:

Its not just the UAE that trades with Iran, its the rest of the world. If Padilla plans on punishing the UAE for trading with Iran, who is next? Indeed, both Canada and the EU not only trade with Iran, they have blocking statutes that prevent compliance with the US embargo. For example, EU Regulation 96/2271, if properly invoked, can prevent EU governments from complying with investigatory requests from ICE and OEE, and can even be used to block EU citizens and companies from providing testimony and documentary evidence to ICE and OEE.

Comment by Mike Deal on December 18th, 2006 @ 4:44 pm

[…] So, who do we think is going to be on the list? BIS won’t say in this “Advance Notice.” But we think that BIS has at least one country in mind and that this “Advance” Notice is a shot across the bow aimed at the UAE. It’s only been several months since Assistant Secretary Padilla of BIS and Undersecretary Abdulla Bin Ahmed Al-Saleh of the UAE engaged in a war of words over diversion of shipments from the UAE to Iran and other places of concern. […]

Comment by ExportLawBlog » Coming Soon: More Countries You Can’t Export To on February 27th, 2007 @ 2:30 pm