A threat by a Counsellor of the Saudi Arabian Embassy here, Omar Bamanie, that Canada would lose millions of dollars of contracts with Saudi Arabia because of a law against complying with the Arab boycott, has split the Canadian government on the issue of how to deal with the problem.
Bamanie said yesterday that the law, which was passed last November, has already resulted in the Saudis tightening up on issuing entry visas to Canadian businessmen. He warned that this could be followed with Saudi Arabia refusing to do any business with Canadian companies. The new law makes it an offense for companies in the Province of Ontario to comply with the Arab boycott of Israel, with high fines for the violators.
Federal Trade Minister Jack Horner said yesterday Canada was losing valuable sales in Saudi Arabia because of Ontario’s new legislation on the Arab boycott of Israel. He said “that legislation is costing us trade, causing difficulty in the banking fraternity and goes much farther than the provincial authorities intended.”
BUSINESS THREATENED WITH MAJOR LOSSES
Saudi Arabia is Canada’s major trading part her in the Middle East. Last year Canada’s exports to Saudi Arabia totaled $234 million while exports to Israel were just $76 million.
“This is your problem, not ours,” Bamanie said in an interview published in the Toronto Globe and Mail. “We can go anywhere with our business and deal with responsible people of other countries. If you are going to say you cannot boycott this ### that then we can go anywhere.” He noted that Bell Canada had a large contract, along with two other international companies, to build a modern telephone system in Saudi Arabia. “We can give that business to two other countries and this is against your benefit,” Bamanie said. Bell signed a $1.1 billion five-year contract with the Saudi government in January 1977 to provide the technology for the project while the Swedish Ericcson Company and the Dutch Phillips Company supply the equipment.
STRENGTHENING ANTI-BOYCOTT LEGISLATION
Defense Minister Barnett Danson, the only Jewish minister in the federal cabinet, said that he was surprised that the Saudis had singled out the Ontario legislature “when they have not reacted to the much longer standing anti-boycott legislation in the United States.”
Danson said the federal government was determined to pursue its efforts to strengthen existing federal anti-boycott legislation. He also said that the federal bill to be submitted soon to the House of Commons is nevertheless considerably weaker than the Ontario legislation, being one “with more substance and less bravado.” Danson was understood to mean the proposed federal legislation would be less challenging to the boycott.
He also said the federal bill would make it mandatory for any Canadian company asked to participate in the boycott to report the request to the federal government.
Under existing law, a company need not report a boycott request unless the company requires federal assistance to fulfill an overseas contract. Such assistance would be denied if the firm agrees to boycott Israel. The penalty for not reporting a request for a boycott will be up to $250 a day fine in the pending legislation. The Canada Israel Committee has launched a national campaign for stronger anti-boycott legislation, but results so far are reportedly meager:
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