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Gulf Daily News Sunday, 11th January 2015
19
FTA lifeline for textile industry
n The AJC led by Bahrain’s former ambassador to the US Houda Nonoo with AmCham second executive vice-president H Delano Roosevelt, business development director Mary McGinnis and Mr Lamba
By AVINASH SAXENA
MANAMA: Bahrain’s textile
industry which exports $200 million worth of goods to the US has
got a temporary respite with the
extension of a key clause under
the 10-year-old US-Bahrain Free
Trade Agreement (FTA).
Garment firm MRS Fashions’ executive director Harinder Lamba told
the GDN yesterday that the US government has issued a notice correcting
the date of termination of the ‘tariff
preference level’ (TPL) in its record.
The Federal Register Notice (FRN)
issued on December 30 last year amends
the previously incorrect expiration date
of the US-Bahrain FTA TPL, he said.
Before, the expiration date had been
listed as December 31 this year, but
the industry’s representatives from
Bahrain have succeeded in convincing
the US authorities that the date was
incorrect since the programme was not
initiated until August 2006, and therefore the 10-year programme should be
set to expire on July 31, next year and
not December 31 this year.
Mr Lamba, however, said this was
not a new benefit and the TPL needed
to be extended for an additional 10
years for Bahrain-based textile manufacturers to remain viable.
The US-Bahrain FTA contains the
“yarn forward” rule of origin, limiting
allowances for the use of yarn and
fabric from a third-party.
The rule was suspended for the first
10 years of the FTA with the TPL set
at a level of 65 million square metres
equivalent.
This allowed companies like
MRS, WestPoint Bahrain, Ambattur
Clothing International and Noble
Garments Factory to use raw materials
imported from countries that are not
signatories to the US-Bahrain FTA,
but still export their products to the
US duty-free.
After the TPL expires, all trade
under the Bahrain FTA must adhere to
the yarn forward rule.
This means that the four Bahrainbased textile exporters will no longer
be able to export their products to the
US duty-free unless they can prove
that all the constituent parts “from the
yarn to the fabric to the thread” are
made by either the US or Bahrain, Mr
Lamba said.
The industry has been using the
offices of American Chamber of
Commerce Bahrain (AmCham
Bahrain) to convince the US Congress
to extend the TPL in Bahrain through
July 31, 2026, he said.
“Full support of the Bahraini government and private sector is needed
as legislation will have to be passed by
the US Congress.”
MRS, Ambattur and Noble, all
apparel manufacturers and WestPoint
Bahrain, a home furnishing manufacturer, together are believed to employ
around 6,200 people.
The firms, he said, will be forced to
leave Bahrain if the tax-exempt status
is not continued making the business
“completely uncompetitive”.
“We will be unable to match the
prices set by factories in India, China,
Vietnam and Bangladesh, because the
labour costs in Bahrain are too high,”
Mr Lamba said.
“We recently hosted a visiting
American Jewish Committee (AJC)
delegation to highlight how companies have successfully used the FTA
to their benefit,” he said.
“They were very impressed with what
is manufactured here in Bahrain and
how Bahrain supports job creation and
growth both in Bahrain and the US.”
avinash@gdn.com.bh
Greenstone ties up with Sipco
n Industry and Commerce Minister Zayed Al Zayani yesterday
received Iraqi Ambassador Dr Ahmed Nayef Rasheed Al
Dulaimi. He stressed the importance of bilateral relations
between Bahrain and Iraq, reviewing the economic situation in
the country and procedures and facilities offered to provide an
appropriate atmosphere to establish projects in the country.
MANAMA:
Samurai
International
Petroleum, (Sipco) and Greenstone Equity
Partners have joined forces in the GCC
region to meet rising investor demand for
global investment opportunities in offshore oil projects.
Greenstone Equity Partners, a Dubaibased and internationally experienced
fund placement firm, will collaborate with
US-based Sipco, to enable them to develop
new relationships with GCC-based investors in the region to raise capital for two
major oilfield projects located in the Gulf
of Mexico.
“We are excited to introduce two large
deep water assets – one currently producing and one greenfield development
– to Middle East investors,” Greenstone
Equity Partners chief executive Alex
Gemici said.
“Both already have significant proven
reserves and are expected to be of the
standard that yields the best pricing in the
crude oil market.
“The producing asset is particularly exciting given its large size and return profile.
“Investors in the GCC have long had
a unique relationship and unprecedented
success with the oil and gas industry, and
there is increasingly high demand for global investment opportunities such as this.”
“We selected Sipco as its team is
renowned for quality and innovation, with
a strong history of success delivering
greenfield initiatives and developments
in the Gulf of Mexico as well as remote
or difficult locations around the globe,”
he added.
“Sipco is pleased to be collaborating with Greenstone Equity
Partners as a recognised fund
placement firm to help bring
two world-class oilfield investment offerings to the GCC
region,” Sipco new business
European Union.
development manager Luke
Coupled with another multi-bil- Jensen said.
lion-dollar wind energy development
“Our management team has
scheme, the solar development plan past experience working on
should reduce Morocco’s annual imports technical aspects of oilfields
of fossil fuels by 2.5m tonnes of oil in the Middle East, and we see
equivalent and prevent emissions of 9 our current assets as a prime
million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
opportunity for investors in
Masen is expected to announce the the region to participate in US
two next solar plants, which would be offshore projects.
located in Midelt (central) and Tata
“Sipco brings with us
(south) towns with an estimated 500 deep-water oilfield developMW each.
ment and production optimiThe choice of the two towns came sation expertise, in addition to
after international lenders said they proven technology, to deliver
would not finance projects located in and maximise the value of and
the disputed Western Sahara that were returns from these fields,” he
initially in the Moroccan solar plan.
added.
Saudi firm wins Morocco solar power deal
RABAT: A consortium led by Saudi
Arabia’s ACWA Power International has
won a 1.7 billion euro ($20bn) contract
to build two solar power plants totalling
350 megawatts in the southern Moroccan
city of Ouarzazate, the Moroccan solar
energy agency (Masen) said.
The two plants are the second phase
of the 500 MW Ouarzazate project,
which is part of a government plan to
produce two gigawatts of solar power by
2020, equivalent to about 38 per cent of
Morocco’s current installed generation
capacity.
ACWA Power is already building a
160 MW plant in the first stage of the
project in the Ouarzazate area.
Acwa’s consortium, which includes
Spain’s Sener, had priced its offer at 1.36
dirhams ($0.15) per kilowatt (KW) for
the first 200 MW plant with parabolic
mirror technology, while it priced the
plant with solar power tower technology
at 1.42 dirhams per KW.
Consortiums ledt by Spain’s Abengoa,
GDF’s International Power and ACWA
Power were pre-selected for the 200 MW
(Noor II) tender.
The three groups were also pre-qualified for the 150 MW (Noor III) tender,
along with another consortium led by
Electricite de France.
Sources have said that consortiums
led by Acwa and Spain’s Abengoa have
bid the lowest to build the two plants. If
Masen decides to combine the bids for
the two plants, the ACWA bids overall would beat Abengoa’s, the sources
added.
The plants are scheduled to start generating power in 2017.
To finance the plants, Morocco has
secured loans of $519 million from the
World Bank, 654m euros from German
state-owned bank KFW and the rest
from the African Development Bank,
the European Commission and European
Investment Bank.
Facing an electricity demand that rises
by an annual 7pc and a gaping trade
deficit from heavy reliance on fossil fuel
imports, Morocco also hopes renewable
energy will enable it to export electricity to energy-hungry trade partner, the