IRmep: Saudi Accountability Act Could Cost 81,000 American Jobs

3/1/2004

From: Grant F. Smith, research director, Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy, 202-342-7325 or gsmith@irmep.org

WASHINGTON, March 1 -- The Saudi Arabia Accountability Act of 2003 (SAA) now under consideration in Congress is rife with problems, according to a study released today. Although the bill hopes to address the global scourge of terrorism, evidence cited in the act is inaccurate, obsolete, or narrow to the point of discriminatory.

The bill weaves together a group of anonymous and curiously sourced allegations as evidence of Saudi support for terrorism and lack of cooperation. The hastily drafted bill attempts to provide a preemptive judgment before terrorism cases currently in the U.S. courts system determine culpability and Saudi American joint commissions draft solutions for international terrorism issues.

A consequence of passing the bill into law would be heavy US employment losses. In 2003 US global exports partially recovered from post 9/11 trade declines. U.S. exports to Saudi Arabia currently provide 124,000 jobs in America and should reach 177,000 by 2012. However, like many other countries, Saudi Arabia has shown a capability for self-defense through economic retaliation. In the period before the US invasion of Iraq, the United States strained many longstanding diplomatic relationships. The diplomatic stress between the US and Saudi Arabia probably led to the redirection of 66 percent of $25 billion in new Saudi gas and infrastructure development projects away from qualified U.S. corporations toward international competitors in 2003. A similar reaction to the SAA could translate into 81,000 lost jobs in the US beginning in 2004.

The March 1, 2004, Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy brief "Saudi Accountability or US Job Elimination Act?" examines the bill's evidence and calculates opportunity costs of the bill based upon recent US-Saudi trade precedents. For more information, access the brief over the Internet at http://www.IRmep.org/SAA.htm

The IRmep is a non-profit public policy research institute headquartered in Washington, D.C.

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The Institute for Research Middle Eastern Policy (IRmep) is a non-partisan, non-ideological think tank dedicated to researching America's interests in the Middle East. Founded in 2002, the Institute became an independent non-profit tax-exempt organization in 2003.

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