ANNUAL OVERVIEW

Julian Pecquet is the Editor of Special Projects for Al-Monitor, where he supervises the award-winning Lobbying Tracker as well as managing long-form stories. Before that he covered the US Congress for Al-Monitor. Prior to joining Al-Monitor, Pecquet led global affairs coverage for the political newspaper The Hill.

Posted: September 11, 2019

Oman has abandoned its losing lobbying fight against President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Along with fellow Gulf states Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, the sultanate had hired representation last year to try to get an exemption from the president’s 25% tariff on steel and 10% tariff on aluminum. Oman paid Washington-based international law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld a total of $50,000 from the contract’s mid-April start date to its Nov. 6 termination, according to lobbying disclosures, less than half the $120,000 originally called for.

The contract, which was signed by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, called on Akin Gump to “provide counsel regarding efforts to obtain an exemption from Section 232 tariffs” and “conduct outreach to US government officials.” Disclosure forms reveal just one May 2018 telephone call, to National Economic Council Clete Willems — who has since joined the firm. Meanwhile, one of Akin Gump’s two former agents on the account, Justin McCarthy, continues to lobby on Section 232 issues for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers in Washington.

The tariffs come as Oman, like many of its neighbors, is trying to diversify its economy away from oil. The government has notably sought to bolster its steel and aluminum sector in recent years amid growing demand in the region, investing $5 billion to turn the industrial port city of Sohar into a major steel producer. Oman accounted for 1.6% of US aluminum imports in 2018 (import value: $279.4 million), according to the Congressional Research Service, up 186.3% over 2017.