General Dynamics warns Canada: Canceling Saudi deal would cost billions

[webfact]

General Dynamics warns Canada: Canceling Saudi deal would cost billions

By David Ljunggren

 

Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau holds a news conference on the final day of the G20 leaders summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina December 1, 2018. REUTERS/Martin Acosta

 

OTTAWA (Reuters) - General Dynamics Corp <GD.N> on Monday put pressure on Ottawa over the sale of armored vehicles to Saudi Arabia, warning that the federal government would incur "billions of dollars of liability" by unilaterally scrapping the deal.

 

The remarks by the Canadian unit of General Dynamics - which one defense expert called unusual - reflect increasing tensions over a $13 billion agreement that is becoming politically awkward for the Liberal government.

 

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, speaking in an interview aired on Sunday, said for the first time that he was looking for a way out of the deal.

 

Political opponents, citing the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and Saudi Arabia's involvement in the Yemen war, insist Trudeau should scrap a pact that was negotiated by the previous Conservative government.

 

"Were Canada to unilaterally terminate the contract, Canada would incur billions of dollars of liability to General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada," the company said in a statement.

 

"Terminating the contract would have a significant negative impact on our highly skilled employees, our supply chain across Canada, and the Canadian defense sector broadly," the statement added.

 

Canadian allies such as Germany have already halted weapons sales to Saudi Arabia.

 

Ottawa is reviewing arms exports to Saudi Arabia, but Adam Austen, a spokesman for Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland, said no final decisions had been taken.

 

Trudeau previously said there would be huge penalties for walking away from the deal. Last month, he said Canada could freeze the relevant export permits if it concluded the weapons had been misused.

 

David Perry, defense analyst at the Canadian Global Affairs Institute, said General Dynamics Land Systems-Canada normally kept a very low profile.

 

"I can't imagine they are anything other than extremely worried," he said in a phone interview.

 

Doug Wilson-Hodge, manager of corporate affairs at the firm's Canadian unit, declined to elaborate when asked why it had issued the warning.

 

Trudeau often stresses the importance of human rights, and continuing to sell arms to the Saudis could leave him open to accusations of double standards.

 

But abandoning the deal could kill thousands of jobs in the struggling city of London, Ontario, where his Liberals will need to do well in a federal election next October.

 

"We are in constant contact with the company, and are committed to the workers at the London facility as well as the suppliers in London and across Canada," Austen said.

 

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Peter Cooney)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-12-18

[bendejo]

Morals vs. money.

Your move, Justin.

Choose the latter and you're in the same league as you-know-who.

 

Or how about a little cleverness, like bombs that don't explode?  If they don't put them to use they'll never know, eh?

 

 

[pedro01]

Money will win.

 

But it IS high time someone stood up to the Saudi's...

[car720]

1 hour ago, bendejo said:

Morals vs. money.

Your move, Justin.

Choose the latter and you're in the same league as you-know-who.

 

Or how about a little cleverness, like bombs that don't explode?  If they don't put them to use they'll never know, eh?

 

 

 

[quandow]

We're getting closer to putting an actual value on the right to kill innocent humans.

[Srikcir]

6 hours ago, webfact said:

Political opponents, citing the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and Saudi Arabia's involvement in the Yemen war, insist Trudeau should scrap a pact that was negotiated by the previous Conservative government.

Perhaps try the KISS principle.

There are two issues to address. While they share an extreme degree of human rights violations, they are dissimilar in terms of breadth. Saudi Arabia's murder of Khashoggi versus a regional assault of a whole population. As such there are two different venues for political resolutions - not one solution. Current trade contracts need not be terminated to deliver political messages.

 

Symbolic Canadian protest. The planned assassination of Khashoggi was in part initiated by Saudi Arabia's hacking of exiled Saudi activist Omar Abdulaziz living in Canada.  https://truenewssource.com/2018/12/05/hacked-phone-khashoggi-saudi-arabia/

• Eject the Saudi Arabia Ambassador to Canada along with a dozen or so S.A. intelligence agents in Canada. Shutdown any off-site embassy annexes such as those Russian facilities in the US shutdown by President Obama in 2016.
• Order investigations into violation of human rights of Saudi Arabian activists living in Canada and indict any that evidence merits.

Symbolic Canadian warning with regard to Saudi Arabia human rights violations in Yemen

• Threaten to freeze the relevant export permits if it concluded the weapons had been misused.
• Coordinate with NATO allies involved with Saudi Arabia's military action in Yemen to demand Saudi Arabia's cessation of hostilities in Yemen except to the extent of blockading import of weapons into Yemen and self-defense of Saudi Arabia.
• Coordinate with the UN Security Council to place a UN peacekeeping force in Yemen

 

 

[Jonmarleesco]

'"Terminating the contract would have a significant negative impact on our highly skilled employees, our supply chain across Canada, and the Canadian defense sector broadly," the statement added.'

 

Should have thought of that before signing it.

[bendejo]

11 hours ago, Jonmarleesco said:

'"Terminating the contract would have a significant negative impact on our highly skilled employees, our supply chain across Canada, and the Canadian defense sector broadly," the statement added.'

 

Should have thought of that before signing it.

 

Bravo.  Find another business to foster, Justin.

 

Or perhaps such deals should have a clause regarding usage.  Nearly impossible to enforce, for example some of weapons in the treaties following WWI are still manufactured in Western "moral guardian" countries.

 

 

[Canuckabroad]

The Saudis have acted like this contract was a gift to Canada. And maybe it was a strategic investment that could have easily gone to another country.  Trudeau is playing along by acting ungrateful and hoping the Saudis will cancel it themselves, thereby releasing Canada of whatever the immediate cancellation fee is.

 

As for any lost future opportunity cost, screw it, we don’t need business partners like Saudi Arabia.