Sudan: Gum arabic and U.S. hypocrisy
The Globe & Mail, June 21
By MATHEW INGRAM
By now, pretty well everyone knows about the U.S. government’s sanctions against Sudan and the Islamic military regime that controls the country, sanctions that have hit Calgary-based Talisman Energy hard, particularly a recently proposed bill that would prevent the company from being listed on the New York Stock Exchange. But what about gum arabic? Luckily enough – for a whole range of American industries – this little-known commodity has been exempted from the sanctions against Sudan.
It’s lucky because the war-torn African nation produces and controls close to 80 per cent of the world’s supply of gum arabic – also known as gum acacia, since it comes from the sap of the acacia tree – a widely-used commodity that has no known substitute. The company that has a monopoly on the production and export of this substance, Gum Arabic Corp., is controlled by the government of Sudan. In other words, the same ruling Islamic regime that the U.S. wants to cut off from Talisman’s oil production money.
Gum arabic was exempted from the sanctions imposed on Sudan by former president Bill Clinton in 1997, an exemption that was supposed to be a short-term thing, but was later extended as a result of lobbying by some of the corporations (including Bristol-Myers Squibb and Procter & Gamble) who depend on the substance – which is shipped in large amber cubes and then ground into a tasteless powder. The powder is then used in everything from candies (M&Ms) and drinks (Coca-Cola and beer) to drugs and cosmetics.
According to Gum Arabic Corp., the product is “used to emulsify the flavor of oils or fats in confections or to retard crystallization in high-sucrose confections,” as well as in “dry packaged products such as instant drinks, dessert mixes [and] soup bases.” It is used in spray glazes for cooking, high-tech ceramics, mineral refining, paper coatings, textile sizing, corrosion inhibitors, glue, emulsion prints and pesticides, and is used to make drug capsules and tablets, cough syrup and a variety of beauty products, creams and lotions. It is also used in printing inks, such as those used on photographic and lithographic plates that produce newspapers and magazines.
In other words, it is too important to do without, at least as far as some American companies are concerned – Talisman or no Talisman.
globeinvestor.com |
