The Minister of Economy and Trade in the caretaker government, Amin Salam, received a delegation from the General Labor Union led by Dr. Bishara Asmar. After the meeting, Salam stated: "The discussion touched on the topic of the food index, which involves allowing the pricing of foodstuffs in supermarkets in dollars, as announced last week." He added: "The ministry is being cautious in making decisions that impact consumers, especially those that carry implications and results for them. Therefore, we have given a week from last Monday until today to see the citizens' and the General Labor Union's reactions."
He continued, "During today's meeting with the union, I presented the items of the mechanism that we will announce and we discussed them, noting some concerns. It is worth mentioning that the union rejected our approach to pricing in dollars, and we explained the positives and negatives to them." He pointed out that "the reactions over the past week were positive, regardless of the dollarization issue." Salam emphasized, "Given that the monetary authority and those responsible for the monetary issue, as well as unifying the exchange rate and stabilizing and collapsing the national currency, are not currently in place, and since the exchange rate is still open-ended and may exceed 75,000 Lebanese pounds, the outcome of this matter remains unclear. We wanted to create an index to protect the consumer."
He added, "A week has passed since we announced our initiative, and we are in favor of consultation, stating that we will not make any decision without being fully convinced of it. The sought goal is to protect the consumer and alleviate the burden of and the failure to curb the manipulation of the dollar exchange rate on the Lebanese citizen. After studying with the parliamentary economy committee and economic experts, we concluded that the trade of foodstuffs was convincing in the Lebanese currency, as everyone imports and pays in dollars and prices in dollars, all of which are convincing in Lebanese currency that is hostage to the exchange rate."
Salam noted, "We are convinced of the need to find a solution to this, even if it is exceptional. This decision is not final; it can be modified, canceled, or changed when we reach stability in the exchange rate that allows us to operate based on it." He concluded, "What I agreed upon with the union delegation is that we will set a short period for consultation on the issue to provide an alternative option, as we cannot leave matters as they are without working to protect the consumer amid the unnatural fluctuations in the dollar exchange rate."
From his side, Asmar stated: "As a labor union, we expressed our position today rejecting the decision for several reasons. However, the goal remains to protect the consumer, and since the minister is fully committed to that, it means we are in a dialogue about this issue. We urged His Excellency to delay the implementation of the decision for further study and consultations with him, economic bodies, and the parliamentary economy committee, noting that a large number of commercial outlets and supermarkets began pricing in dollars today. Therefore, I consider the index process proposed by His Excellency the minister to be very necessary, but we want the index to be in the hands of the Ministry of Economy and in our national currency, i.e., in Lebanese pounds, and for the ministry to have the upper hand in monitoring. Despite the small number of inspectors, the ministry is performing its work as best as it can. From this perspective, we look forward to cooperation on the index because we cannot leave the working, poor, retired citizen, and military personnel at the mercy of supermarket owners and some large traders."
Asmar added: "The trader charges me TVA on 60 thousand and declares it to the finance ministry at 15 thousand. This issue needs to be addressed by the Ministry of Finance in cooperation with the Ministry of Economy and with the presence of the General Labor Union. Here, I say to the parliamentary economy and trade committee to convene to decide the fate of 90% of the Lebanese people, and it should take into account the opinion of the General Labor Union, which is a widely representative entity like the parliamentary council. The mere fact that we spoke about dollarizing basic goods means we are discussing the dollarization of fuel and all other goods, while public sector salaries are still at 1,500 pounds."
He continued: "I appreciate Minister Salam for his call for dialogue and thank him for postponing this matter, and I call for further dialogue given our need for it." Asmar confirmed, in response to a question about the security and economic measures that should be taken, the "necessity of adopting the index."
For his part, Salam stated: "As long as the decision has not been officially issued by the Ministry of Economy, no one has the right to price in dollars. I reiterate that the goal is to provide some form of protection for the citizen, but I am not responsible for the monetary and financial issue; however, we cannot leave the citizen vulnerable to the violation of his right." He added: "As a minister, I engage in dialogue with everyone for the sake of the citizen's interest, and we will resort to some form of referendum to see if there are other solutions."
