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(Last updated: 01 May 2008)
Exporters should be aware that Australia maintains United Nations Security Council sanctions in respect of Lebanon. These sanctions require Australian organisations and individuals to comply with a range of measures and, in general, also apply extraterritorially to Australian nationals overseas.
Sanctions may include export and import restrictions, prohibitions of technical assistance, training and financing, travel sanctions, and financial sanctions against specific persons and entities.
See the following Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website for more information about sanctions: www.dfat.gov.au/un/unsc_sanctions/unsc_sanctions_whatare.html.
For information about United Nations sanctions currently in force, please see: www.dfat.gov.au/un/unsc_sanctions/index.html.
For information about the operation of the defence and strategic goods export control regime, please see: www.defence.gov.au/strategy/dtcc.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) provides advice for business travellers and tourists going to Lebanon. This is regularly updated, and should be checked before planning travel.
Exporters with existing or potential sales orders from Lebanon should take immediate steps to assess the likelihood of rejection of shipments or potential difficulties associated with current and/or future sales. Exporters should seek specific advice from their agents or importers in Lebanon.
Australians planning to travel to, or who are currently travelling in the Middle East, are urged to exercise care and monitor developments through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's (DFAT) current general travel advice and bulletins.
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| Capital city: |
Beirut |
| Surface area: |
10,000 sq km |
| Population: |
3.7 million |
| Official language(s): |
Arabic |
| Head of State: |
Vacant |
| Head of Government: |
H.E. Prime Minister Mr Fuad Siniora (Caretaker Cabinet) |
| Australian exports to Lebanon: |
A$18 million |
| Australian imports from Lebanon: |
A$13 million |
| Lebanon's principal export destinations: |
Syrian Arab Republic, United Arab Emirates, Switzerland |
| Lebanon's principal import sources: |
Syrian Arab Republic, Italy, USA | (Source: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade - Country economic fact sheet)
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Lebanon's economy and markets are best described at the dawn of the new millennium by strong private and liberal economic activity, and an openness to foreign input with good capital and labour mobility. The private sector contributes to around 75 per cent of aggregate demand, a well-diversified sector that covers the totality of economic sectors and is a major pillar for growth and recovery.
The Lebanese economy is also typically an open economy with a large banking sector equivalent to more than 2.5 times its economic sector and providing an important support to aggregate demand.
Within this business environment, Lebanon is a country that has:
- Reconstructed its infrastructure, with 80 per cent of the basic infrastructure rehabilitated using the best technologies.
- Revised basically most of its business laws and regulations.
- A reputable banking sector with high financial standing, strictly regulated by the Central Bank.
- Initiated a process of domestic capital market development and accessed frequently international markets.
- Recently launched in-depth, growth-oriented measures aimed at stimulating the economy.
The Lebanese economy has been facing some signs of sluggishness over the past couple of years, but these are mainly tied to short term challenges. Growth has contracted in real terms, due to a decline in aggregate demand in both its consumption and investment components. The newly appointed government launched a series of ambitious measures aimed at improving household and business sentiment and stimulating growth, drawing on a largely underutilised capacity estimated at close to 35 per cen of potential.
The expansionary government policies (deregulation, tariff reduction, launch of frozen capital spending, open sky policy, interest rate subsidies for productive lending, etc) are expected to have a direct positive impact on economic activity, though at the detriment of a tougher fiscal consolidation in the near term.
Indeed, fiscal conditions at year end-2000 continue to be underlined by significant revenue-spending imbalances, leading to further rises in government indebtedness. Deficit reported 24 per cent of GDP in 2000 raising the debt ratio to close to 150 per cent. The country still awaits the adoption of drastic privatisation and debt management measures that would aim at cutting the observed vicious circle of debt servicing/deficit/ debt growth. Such a scenario could be actually encouraged by the materialisation of a high real output growth target generating important revenue surpluses for the Lebanese State in the medium run.
The challenges that the economy is currently facing are believed to be more of a short term and cyclical nature. An upward shift is actually quite plausible once the general environment factors are alleviated. |
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Political climate
In addition to its indigenous political groupings, Lebanon contains branches of many other political parties of the Arab world. These cover the political spectrum from far left to far right, from totally secular to wholly religious and often are associated with a particular religion or geographic region. Palestinian refugees, numbering about 400,000 and predominantly Muslim, constitute an important and sensitive minority.
Lebanese political parties are generally vehicles for powerful leaders whose followers are often of the same religious sect. The interplay for position and power among these leaders and groups produces a political tapestry of extraordinary complexity.
In the past, this system worked to produce a viable democracy. Recent events, however, have upset the delicate Muslim-Christian balance and resulted in a tendency for Christians and Muslims to group themselves for safety into distinct zones. All factions have called for a reform of the political system.
Some Christians favour political and administrative decentralisation of the government, with separate Muslim and Christian sectors operating within the framework of a confederation. Muslims, for the most part, prefer a unified, central government with an enhanced share of power for themselves commensurate with their percentage of the population. The reforms of the Taif agreement moved in this latter direction. |
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Trade relations and statistics
Major Australian exports to Lebanon (2006-07):
- Cheese and curd - A$4 million
- Vegetables - A$1 million
- Passenger motor vehicles - A$1 million
- Milk and cream - A$1 million
Major Australian imports from Lebanon (2006-07):
- Special yarns and textile fabrics - A$2 million
- "Soft" fixed vegetable fats & oils - A$2 million
- Preserved fruit and preparations - A$1 million
- Construction materials - A$1 million
(Source: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade - Country economic fact sheet)
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