* Vague contracts keep international traders away
* Soviet era mentality alive and well-businessman
* Up to 10 vessels delayed at Tartous port
Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Amena Bakr
DAMASCUS/DUBAI, Feb 16 (Reuters) - Syria's attempts to rejoin the global economy and meet its growing food demand are being undermined by opaque rules that obstruct commodity imports, businessmen and traders said.
The government relaxed restrictions on private food imports in 2008 as part of a policy to slowly open several sectors of the state-controlled economy begun by President Bashar al-Assad after his father's death in 2000.
Quality specifications were changed without coordination with other authorities, resulting in delays at Syrian ports, traders said.
In one instance last year, a 150,000 tonne deal to import wheat from France sparked a dispute with the supplier Granit Negoce, drawing the intervention of French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
For four months, Syrian authorities refused to let the wheat unload from a ship outside the port of Tartous, saying the cargo was of substandard quality.
Quality tests performed by the Syrian agriculture ministry were disputed by Granit, which incurred an estimated one million euro ($1.37 million) in shipping charges on the delayed vessel.
The dispute is still to be resolved.
"Dealing with commodities related to Syria has become very difficult," said Najib Assaf, owner of a major sugar refinery in Syria in partnership with U.S. food firm Cargill.
"The agriculture ministry lacks international expertise and have only local or Soviet Union-trained staff," he said.
SOVIET MODEL
Assaf was referring to failed former Soviet Union style economic policies enacted by the ruling Baath Party after it took power in 1963.
Tarif Akhras, a flour mill owner, said the Syrian authorities have delayed the unloading of around 10 ships carrying up to 50,000 tonnes of wheat to the port of Tartous.
"This of course is causing losses to the company, but we are optimistic that the government will reassess quality standards," said Akhras, who owns a 7,000-tonne a year flour mill, and is building a sugar refinery due to start operations in March.
A state commodities official acknowledged there were delays at Tartous but said these were due to time-consuming procedures that were necessary to guarantee standards.
"The agriculture ministry has high quality specifications, and this is well known," the official said.
One market source, however, said Syrian authorities keep contracts vague, opening the possibility for confusion.
"The contracts are laden with quality standards cut and pasted from European ones and not intended for Syria. No one knows how to apply and test them locally," the source said.
"To understand the system one has to examine who benefits when ships are being delayed and the quality of goods that actually end up on the market," he said.
Another international trader said the regulations and myriad of state bureaucracies dealing with commodities had kept established traders away from Syria's rice tenders.
"It takes only one obscure government official to stop a shipment based on vague safety concerns and no one dares to contradict him for fear of being labelled as allowing substandard stuff into the country," the trader said.
The problem over regulations has escalated since drought halved Syria's wheat production to 2.1 million tonnes in 2008, increasing the need for imports. With a population growth at 2.5 percent, imports of other commodities have also risen.
In 2008, Syria asked France for help to rebuild its wheat reserves and Granit Negoce subsequently concluded the 150,000 tonne deal, one of Syria's biggest purchases.
"This episode has not been great for Syria's reputation as a new buyer on the international market," another trader said.
Under U.S. sanctions for its support of militant groups, Syria is ranked 108 out of 121 countries surveyed by the World Economic Forum in its 2009 Trade Enabling Index. The index measures regulations and import-export procedures. (Writing by Khaled Yacoub Oweis; editing by James Jukwey)