BEIRUT - On the eve of Michel Suleiman’s visit to Syria, the President of the Industrialists Association Fadi Abbod said that he delivered a list of demands to the President to mark off the problems encountered by the industrialists. The first demand of the association was to review the “mazout tax” imposed by Syria on trucks with Lebanese license numbers on both the Lebanese and the Syrian frontiers. This tax is of 1000 dollars back and forth for each truck, which means around 40 dollars per ton of agricultural production.

Fadi Abboud asserted that this problem should be solved directly by the Lebanese President without having to wait for a commission’s examination.

He also estimated that the bilateral treaties concluded between Lebanon and Syria rather serve the interests of Lebanon then those of Syria. According to the President of the Industrialists Association, the implementation of these agreements should be revised.