Beirut, Lebanon – It is close to two weeks since Saudi Arabia declared an all-out ban on imported goods from Lebanon after it came to light that a minor Lebanese minister had criticised the kingdom over the civil war in Yemen.
Though the comments were made before the minister took office, for Lebanon, the timing could not be more painful. Cash-strapped and sinking deeper into a two-year-old economic crisis, the import ban by the richest economy in the Arab world is kicking Lebanon’s tiny, embattled economy when it is already hopelessly down.
“The current ban from Saudi Arabia has now directly hit around $250m worth of exports. That’s huge for Lebanon. That’s a lot for Lebanon,” said Paul Abi Nasr, CEO of Polytextile and a board member of the Association of Lebanese Industrialists. “Look, to be very clear, on an industrial level this is a huge thing,” he told Al Jazeera.
Prior to the Saudi ban, Abi Nasr says that exports to Saudi Arabia were expected to double in 2022. “We were starting to take advantage of the Saudi ban on Turkish products – they are very big competitors,” he explained. “Our target for 2022 was to move to $500m in exports to Saudi Arabia.”
On an industrial level this is a huge thing
Paul Abi Nasr, CEO, Polytextile
Lebanon continues to spiral ever downwards into an economic abyss it first tumbled into back in 2019. Over the past two years, the Lebanese pound has lost around 90 percent of its value. Almost three-quarters of the country’s population now lives in poverty. The country’s banks are on the ropes due to a shortage of US dollars – effectively wiping out the savings of millions of people – while Lebanon’s once buzzing tourism industry struggles from skyrocketing overhead costs and a lack of COVID-wary clientele.
A new diplomatic row
Relations between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia have become strained over the past half-decade, especially following the 2016 election of Lebanese President Michel Aoun, who is allied to Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Riyadh once invested billions of dollars into the country and bolstered its luxury tourism economy. Before Lebanon’s financial crisis took hold, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri said he had been in talks with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to fund nearly two dozen development projects in Lebanon.
Now, a new diplomatic row – sparked by comments made by Information Minister George Kordahi about the war in Yemen during an interview a month before his appointment – has further strained ties.
After the comments were reported, the reaction from the Gulf was swift. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, and Bahrain recalled their envoys from Beirut, and banished Lebanese ambassadors. Bahrain and the UAE have called on their citizens to leave Lebanon. Yemen has also since recalled its envoy from Beirut.
On November 5, the head of the Council of Saudi Chambers, the federation of the kingdom’s 26 chambers of commerce and industry, took to Twitter to call on all Saudi “companies and businessmen to stop all dealings with Lebanon”.
The recent blanket ban marks an escalation of tension that took root in April, when Saudi Arabia implemented an indefinite, targeted ban on Lebanese produce and agricultural products after foiling an attempt to smuggle 5.3 million pills of the illegal amphetamine Captagon that had been hidden in a shipment of pomegranates at Jeddah port.
At the time, the Saudi ambassador to Lebanon, Waleed Bukhari, tweeted that the kingdom had found more than 57 million illicit narcotic substances smuggled from Lebanon since the beginning of 2020.
From trade hub to marginalised
Some experts now fear that the UAE, Kuwait, and Bahrain might follow Saudi’s lead and implement similar blanket import bans on Lebanese products.
“That would account for about half of our total revenues from exports,” Nizar Ghanem, director of research and co-founder of Beirut-based researcher centre Triangle told Al Jazeera. “I think it’s definitely a legitimate concern.”
Meanwhile, in Riyadh, Lebanese businessmen say the tension has made operating more challenging. “We don’t feel comfortable to be in the middle of this crisis,” Rabih El-Amine, chairman of the Lebanese Executive Council in Riyadh told Al Jazeera. “Yes we’re operating sort of normally, but it’s not easy.”
Lebanese industrialists have tried to circumvent the Saudi ban by exporting from other countries where they have operations, including Egypt and the UAE. But that workaround eats into revenues that would otherwise be collected by Lebanon’s government.
The import ban also places the prospects for Lebanon’s long elusive economic recovery even further from reach.
We’ve become the marginalised place
Nizar Ghanem, Triangle
Since the end of its civil war in 1990, the bulk of Lebanon’s economic activity has been concentrated in banking, tourism and real estate, while more productive sectors have failed to thrive. The government wants to diversify the country’s economy and increase revenue from exports. But it now faces obstacles from some of its most important export markets.
At the same time, Ghanem said Lebanon is losing major economic opportunities, while business is flourishing in the region.
“With everything happening with Gulf, Egypt, and Israel – there is a full trade zone blooming – and Lebanon is completely out of it,” Ghanem told Al Jazeera. “Historically, Lebanon was the trade hub that connected the Arab world. Now, we’ve become the marginalised place, with militias, collapsing rule of law and a massive financial crisis”
Ghanem and others fear that Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries could squeeze Lebanon even further by freezing or limiting financial flows.
Lebanon for years has relied on remittances from millions of expatriates living in its diaspora, especially in the Gulf, to replenish hard currency. Some 43 percent of remittances come from the Gulf, according to the World Bank.
Now, that vital lifeline for Lebanon’s ailing economy could be in jeopardy. El-Amine describes remittances as the “last artery to Lebanon’s body”.
A political problem
“We consider that these actions are too broad and they affect everyone instead only those they have an issue with,” said CEO Abi Nasr. “[But] we understand why they would take such actions, even though for us it’s too much.”
Abi Nasr and El-Amine both believe that Lebanon has not done enough to address the security and political issues Saudi Arabia has raised.
The kingdom and other Gulf countries for example have expressed concerns about illicit drugs smuggled to their countries via Lebanon. They have also expressed concerns about Hezbollah’s growing influence in the region. The Iran-backed political party has become a major military player in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, where it backs Houthi rebels against a Saudi-led coalition.
“Saudi Arabia told us they have no problem with the private sector, but as a country, they can only deal with the government of Lebanon,” Abi Nasr said. “The Lebanese government did not take action – they thought time would fix it.”
The Lebanese authorities last spring vowed to tackle drug smuggling more aggressively. They have since foiled several smuggling attempts from the Beirut port to ship tonnes of Captagon and hashish to Saudi Arabia, Greece and a handful of other countries.
the Gulf countries are saying we’re not the cash cow anymore
Nizar Ghanem, Triangle
But that has not been enough to assuage Riyadh’s political concerns.
Lebanon had long managed to walk a tightrope on Saudi-Iran tensions, effectively side-stepping regional crises to maintain economic stability. But researcher Ghanem said current economic and political realities make that balancing act impossible.
“In the past, you could have just dealt with a paralysed government for years because we have the [US dollar] peg to the lira, and the inflow of money coming through remittances,” he said. “Now we’re completely bankrupt, and there needs to be a complete reinvention of Lebanon’s foreign policy and economic model, but the political class doesn’t seem to see that.”
Ghanem says the role of Hezbollah in the region, especially in Yemen, and its negative discourse against Gulf countries has further exacerbated the situation.
“This is what the Gulf countries are saying: we’re not the cash cow anymore, you can’t get free money from us anymore” he explained. “You cannot disconnect this from our political stance in the region.”
The Lebanese government has not met in almost a month, due to squabbles over Beirut port blast investigator Judge Tarek Bitar, as well as disagreement over the Kordahi incident. Hezbollah and some of its allies have praised Kordahi’s comments, while Prime Minister Najib Mikati and President Aoun have hinted that he should resign.
The Lebanese government has called for dialogue with Saudi Arabia, with the Arab League trying to mediate.
“We hope this crisis would end, but unfortunately the Lebanese authorities are living in a different world,” El-Amine says. “We can’t play two-face anymore where we have a country and government, but also six or seven political parties that do their own thing. This won’t work anymore with the GCC or any country in the world.”
Abi Nasr and other industrialists have urged the Lebanese authorities to quickly restore ties, but he does not sound optimistic. “The government told us that it’s in the process of being fixed. What does that mean? I have no clue.”
Almost seven years since news broke of an alleged conspiracy to fix the price of packaged bread across Canada, the saga isn’t over: the Competition Bureau continues to investigate the companies that may have been involved, and two class-action lawsuits continue to work their way through the courts.
Here’s a timeline of key events in the bread price-fixing case.
Oct. 31, 2017: The Competition Bureau says it’s investigating allegations of bread price-fixing and that it was granted search warrants in the case. Several grocers confirm they are co-operating in the probe.
Dec. 19, 2017: Loblaw and George Weston say they participated in an “industry-wide price-fixing arrangement” to raise the price of packaged bread. The companies say they have been co-operating in the Competition Bureau’s investigation since March 2015, when they self-reported to the bureau upon discovering anti-competitive behaviour, and are receiving immunity from prosecution. They announce they are offering $25 gift cards to customers amid the ongoing investigation into alleged bread price-fixing.
Jan. 31, 2018: In court documents, the Competition Bureau says at least $1.50 was added to the price of a loaf of bread between about 2001 and 2016.
Dec. 20, 2019: A class-action lawsuit in a Quebec court against multiple grocers and food companies is certified against a number of companies allegedly involved in bread price-fixing, including Loblaw, George Weston, Metro, Sobeys, Walmart Canada, Canada Bread and Giant Tiger (which have all denied involvement, except for Loblaw and George Weston, which later settled with the plaintiffs).
Dec. 31, 2021: A class-action lawsuit in an Ontario court covering all Canadian residents except those in Quebec who bought packaged bread from a company named in the suit is certified against roughly the same group of companies.
June 21, 2023: Bakery giant Canada Bread Co. is fined $50 million after pleading guilty to four counts of price-fixing under the Competition Act as part of the Competition Bureau’s ongoing investigation.
Oct. 25 2023: Canada Bread files a statement of defence in the Ontario class action denying participating in the alleged conspiracy and saying any anti-competitive behaviour it participated in was at the direction and to the benefit of its then-majority owner Maple Leaf Foods, which is not a defendant in the case (neither is its current owner Grupo Bimbo). Maple Leaf calls Canada Bread’s accusations “baseless.”
Dec. 20, 2023: Metro files new documents in the Ontario class action accusing Loblaw and its parent company George Weston of conspiring to implicate it in the alleged scheme, denying involvement. Sobeys has made a similar claim. The two companies deny the allegations.
July 25, 2024: Loblaw and George Weston say they agreed to pay a combined $500 million to settle both the Ontario and Quebec class-action lawsuits. Loblaw’s share of the settlement includes a $96-million credit for the gift cards it gave out years earlier.
Sept. 12, 2024: Canada Bread files new documents in Ontario court as part of the class action, claiming Maple Leaf used it as a “shield” to avoid liability in the alleged scheme. Maple Leaf was a majority shareholder of Canada Bread until 2014, and the company claims it’s liable for any price-fixing activity. Maple Leaf refutes the claims.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:L, TSX:MFI, TSX:MRU, TSX:EMP.A, TSX:WN)
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 250 points in late-morning trading, led by strength in the base metal and technology sectors, while U.S. stock markets also charged higher.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 254.62 points at 23,847.22.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 432.77 points at 41,935.87. The S&P 500 index was up 96.38 points at 5,714.64, while the Nasdaq composite was up 486.12 points at 18,059.42.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.68 cents US compared with 73.58 cents US on Thursday.
The November crude oil contract was up 89 cents at US$70.77 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was down a penny at US2.27 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$9.40 at US$2,608.00 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents at US$4.33 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Supervised injection sites are saving the lives of drug users everyday, but the same support is not being offered to people who inhale illicit drugs, the head of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS says.
Dr. Julio Montaner said the construction of Vancouver’s first indoor supervised site for people who inhale drugs comes as the percentage of people who die from smoking drugs continues to climb.
The location in the Downtown Eastside at the Hope to Health Research and Innovation Centre was unveiled Wednesday after construction was complete, and Montaner said people could start using the specialized rooms in a matter of weeks after final approvals from the city and federal government.
“If we don’t create mechanisms for these individuals to be able to use safely and engage with the medical system, and generate points of entry into the medical system, we will never be able to solve the problem,” he said.
“Now, I’m not here to tell you that we will fix it tomorrow, but denying it or ignoring it, or throw it under the bus, or under the carpet is no way to fix it, so we need to take proactive action.”
Nearly two-thirds of overdose deaths in British Columbia in 2023 came after smoking illicit drugs, yet only 40 per cent of supervised consumption sites in the province offer a safe place to smoke, often outdoors, in a tent.
The centre has been running a supervised injection site for years which sees more than a thousand people monthly and last month resuscitated five people who were overdosing.
The new facilities offer indoor, individual, negative-pressure rooms that allow fresh air to circulate and can clear out smoke in 30 to 60 seconds while users are monitored by trained nurses.
Advocates calling for more supervised inhalation sites have previously said the rules for setting up sites are overly complicated at a time when the province is facing an overdose crisis.
More than 15,000 people have died of overdoses since the public health emergency was declared in B.C. in April 2016.
Kate Salters, a senior researcher at the centre, said they worked with mechanical and chemical engineers to make sure the site is up to code and abidies by the highest standard of occupational health and safety.
“This is just another tool in our tool box to make sure that we’re offering life-saving services to those who are using drugs,” she said.
Montaner acknowledged the process to get the site up and running took “an inordinate amount of time,” but said the centre worked hard to follow all regulations.
“We feel that doing this right, with appropriate scientific background, in a medically supervised environment, etc, etc, allows us to derive the data that ultimately will be sufficiently convincing for not just our leaders, but also the leaders across the country and across the world, to embrace the strategies that we are trying to develop.” he said.
Montaner said building the facility was possible thanks to a single $4-million donation from a longtime supporter.
Construction finished with less than a week before the launch of the next provincial election campaign and within a year of the next federal election.
Montaner said he is concerned about “some of the things that have been said publicly by some of the political leaders in the province and in the country.”
“We want to bring awareness to the people that this is a serious undertaking. This is a very massive investment, and we need to protect it for the benefit of people who are unfortunately drug dependent.” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.
