RIYADH, 13 September 2006 — Date sellers in the Kingdom are still in limbo trying to export their harvest to the United Arab Emirates with new customs measures taken by the Emirati Ministry of Agriculture. The rules have curtailed the export of raw dates from Saudi Arabia to the UAE.
The crisis has entered its third month now and was only announced publicly this week by a Saudi trade official. Many date sellers in the Kingdom expressed their frustration at the measures, which could curtail their exports and inflict heavy losses to sellers due to the importance of the date season ahead of the holy month of Ramadan.
According to Abdulrahman Al-Zamil, head of the Saudi Export Development Center and member of the Shoura Council, the UAE Council of Ministers had given orders to the Ministry of Agriculture to enforce three new conditions for Saudi date exporters.
The first condition set by the Emirati Ministry of Agriculture was that Saudi exporters must obtain a permission letter before their goods can be sent to the UAE.
The second is that only dates that have already been processed for added value can be exported to the UAE, such as dates with chocolate or date-filled cookies. Thirdly, the exporter must obtain a UAE health certificate.
“These measures are a violation of the United Gulf Customs regulations, the Arab Customs Union, and the World Trade Organization agreements,” he told reporters. Al-Zamil said that an official letter had been sent to the Saudi Ministry of Finance about the problem.
An Emirati official defended the new measures, telling Al-Eqtisadiah, a sister publication of Arab News, that the measures were “not targeting Saudi exporters and were routine measures taken every year,” adding that they did not conflict with the agreements of the United Gulf Customs or the World Trade Organization.
“Abdulrahman Al-Zamil implied that these measures were a violation of the Gulf customs or the WTO agreements, but they aren’t. They are routine directives that are issued annually,” the source said.
The source, who preferred anonymity, said the directives were compliant with all GCC and WTO agreements, adding that UAE Customs was supporting the export of Saudi goods by giving import permissions to many Saudi exporters without hurdles.
The source, however, did not comment on the new measures mentioned in the UAE draft sent to Saudi officials, which implies that dates must be packaged and processed to differentiate them from UAE dates as a condition before exporting them to the UAE.
Al-Zamil said the purpose of announcing the problem publicly was to reach a middle ground and to find a speedy solution with the date season at its peak.
Commenting on the Emirati response to the crisis, he wanted to know how come Saudi exporters did not hear of them before if the measures were compliant with GCC customs agreements.
Al-Zamil said that due to the new measures, independent date exporters could suffer heavy losses. “They will end up with their harvest waiting at the border for a long time, waiting for the approval to come,” he added.
A source at the Saudi Export Development Center told Arab News that they were following up the crisis and contacted the Ministry of Finance as soon as they learned about it. “To us Saudis, these conditions are inappropriate. They conflict with the term ‘free market trade’ which is the core of GCC customs and WTO agreements,” he said.
Al-Zamil said yesterday he hoped Emirati officials were aware of the problem, noting that the trade volume between the Kingdom and UAE was strong. “Saudi Arabia exports SR9 billion worth of goods to the UAE every year, as does the UAE with almost the same amount. “We are hopeful that these conditions would be set aside as soon as possible,” he added.
According to the Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry, 80 percent of the Kingdom’s date exports go to the UAE, where much of the commodity is processed for re-export. The Kingdom is the world’s largest date exporter, providing nearly 20 percent of dates sold on the world market.
