US Embassy calls Sudanese producers of gum Arabic to visit Washington

Khartoum-SudaneseOnline -The political and economic officer at the US Embassy in Khartoum Iza Miller has invited producers of gum Arabic to visit the United States to establish a framework for cooperation in this area, revealing that the United States consumes large amounts of gum which enters mainly in the oil industry. Miller, who visited Al-Gadarif state on Friday and met with the state’s Agriculture Minister, stressed his efforts to create a partnership with Sudan to develop the gum, pointing out the continuous contact between the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum with Washington to solve the problem of financial transfers between the two countries to import gum directly from Sudan.
For his part, the stated Agriculture Minister expressed his hope that Washington to lift economic sanctions on Sudan, noting that Al-Gadarif owns 8 million acres for rain-fed agriculture and 3 million acres of forests.
Meanwhile, the Secretary-General of the Gum Arabic Council, Dr. Abdul Majid Abdul-Qadir, who accompanied the U.S officer at his visit to the State, expected that U.S limits its imports of gum Arabic to Sudan exclusively due to the spread of Ebola disease in West Africa.
Sanctions on Sudan began after the country gave refuge to various militant Islamists in the early 1990’s, most notably Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who lived in Khartoum from 1991 to 1996.
In 1997 United States President Bill Clinton imposed trade restrictions on Sudan due to Khartoum’s support for international terrorism, violations of human rights, and attempting to destabilize neighboring governments, such as the assassination attempt on the life of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa.
In November 2012 Sudan renewed calls for serious talks about ending sanctions and removing Khartoum from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, despite US President Barack Obama extended the trade embargo that month.