VZCZCXRO1966
PP RUEHROV
DE RUEHKU #0153/01 0381532
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 071532Z FEB 08
FM AMEMBASSY KUWAIT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0761
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KUWAIT 000153 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ARP, USTR FOR JBUNTIN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KBCT PREL ECON ETRD AL KU
SUBJECT: KUWAIT RESPONSE: IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ARAB LEAGUE 
BOYCOTT IN KUWAIT 
 
REF: STATE 08509 
 
 ¶1. (SBU) Summary:  Kuwait Customs Director General Ibrahim 
Al-Ghanim downplayed Kuwait's adherence to the Arab League 
Boycott during a February 7 meeting with Econoff.  The Arab 
League Boycott (ALB) Office lies within the Directorate 
General of Customs and is directly supervised by the DG. 
Al-Ghanim clarified that Kuwait does not have a specific law, 
statute or regulation implementing the 1994 GCC declaration, 
but that Kuwait has not applied secondary or tertiary aspects 
of the ALB since 1991.  Al-Ghanim stressed that Kuwait 
applies only the primary boycott, and even this has not been 
a serious issue in Kuwait in many years.  He also affirmed 
that Kuwait has removed all firms and entities that were on 
the boycott list due to secondary or tertiary boycott prior 
to 1991.  Al-Ghanim declined the U.S. offer to train officers 
in the Boycott office, stating that this office is not active 
and is merely a "paper tiger."  End Summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) During a February 7 meeting with Econoff, Customs DG 
Ibrahim Al-Ghanim stressed that Kuwait has not applied 
secondary or tertiary aspects of the Arab League boycott 
since 1991, well before the 1994 GCC declaration revoking the 
boycott.  There are no laws, regulations or circulars that 
enforce the 1994 GCC declaration, but it has been part of 
Kuwait "standard operating procedure" for a very long time, 
he said.  When asked why no law or regulation has been passed 
in this regard, he answered that this would be seen as 
unnecessary since secondary or tertiary boycott has not been 
an issue for more than 16 years.  He added that companies 
that were on the boycott list prior to 1991 have been removed 
from the list. 
 
¶3. (U) Kuwait does, however, have laws regarding primary 
boycott of Israeli goods. For example, following is the text 
of Kuwait Commercial Law No. 68 (1980):  "Article 62 is 
amended per Decree no. 1 dated January 14, 2001, as follows: 
the following are not valid to be trademarks and not 
permitted to be registered; Clause 7: Trademarks that "Arab 
Boycott Office" has determined are identical or similar to an 
Israeli mark, symbol, or logo."  Several other sections of 
commercial and trade law state similar bans on Israeli 
products.  Post will send text of these laws by unclassified 
email to NEA/ARP Ashley Bagwell and NEA/RA Joe Scovitch. 
 
¶4. (U) Econoff asked the DG about occasional reports of 
tender documents with boycott clauses.  He said the GOK has 
worked very hard to amend all its tender documents to remove 
the boycott clauses.  He assured us that all have been 
removed as of 2000.  He has not seen any cases, complaints or 
reports of any tender documents in the last eight years that 
allege boycott clauses in tender documents. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Al-Ghanim declined our offer to have Kuwaiti customs 
officers work with USG officials to modify problematic 
requests, adding that compliance requests and errors 
connected to them are a very rare occurrence.  He stressed 
that the boycott office only has a staff of three and the 
director of the office has been ill for a long time.  No real 
work is being done by this office, he said.  This office 
exists merely to "maintain the status quo."  Kuwait attends, 
but does not actively participate in, all the Arab League 
Conferences in Damascus, he admitted, but this is purely to 
"avoid undue attention" on this issue in Kuwait.  In fact, he 
added, in recent years Kuwait has tried to influence other 
countries in the Arab League to revoke secondary and tertiary 
boycotts.  Most recently, according to Al-Ghanim, Kuwait 
talked to Morocco and Lebanon about lifting the secondary and 
tertiary ban.  North African countries are leaning towards 
eliminating these boycotts partly because of Kuwaiti 
influence, he argued. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Al-Ghanim continued that the boycott office is open 
in name only and does not take serious action against 
violators.  When they do identify Israeli goods in the local 
market, they enforce a nominal fine on the merchant and 
confiscate the product, he said.  He added that this office 
has not referred any such cases to prosecution in many years. 
The POC for this office on all boycott-related issues is the 
DG of Customs Ibrahim Al-Ghanim.  The acting Director of the 
Boycott Office is Waleed Al-Hammad.  However, only the DG of 
Customs speaks on boycott issues. 
 
¶7. (U) Post has not heard of Kuwaiti officials requesting 
compliance with or soliciting information regarding 
compliance with boycott of Israel.  Nor has the Kuwaiti 
government issued any public statements in the last year 
supporting or discouraging compliance with the boycott. 
 
KUWAIT 00000153  002 OF 002 
 
 
Al-Ghanim said that this boycott has not really been an 
important issue in Kuwait for a very long time. 
 
¶8. (U) Al-Ghanim admitted that in the past the Customs office 
received numerous letters from U.S. companies complaining 
that they were receiving requests from the GOK to comply with 
ALB.  He assured us that there have been no such incidents 
"in several years" and any new reports were unfounded.  He is 
unaware of any GOK official, entity, office or ministry 
making such a request in the last few years.  He asked that 
the Embassy contact him directly if we receive any such 
complaint. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Al-Ghanim promised to consider issuing circulars 
reminding public and private entities to abandon secondary 
and tertiary aspects of the boycott.  He commented, however, 
that such a circular would be unnecessary in Kuwait as this 
has not been an issue for many years here.  He welcomed USG 
Commerce-State teams for technical meetings and assured that 
he does not see any obstacle to working with the USG on this 
or any other customs-related issue. 
 
********************************************* * 
For more reporting from Embassy Kuwait, visit: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/?cable s 
 
Visit Kuwait's Classified Website: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/ 
********************************************* * 
MISENHEIMER