COMMERCE DEPT. VOWS TO CRACK DOWN ON BOYCOTT OF ISRAELI INDUSTRY
Commerce Dept.’s Bureau of Industry & Security (BIS) vowed to crack down on violators of U.S. antiboycott regulations, following last week’s pledge by Arab League’s Boycott Office to reactivate its ban on trade with Israel. Commerce Undersecy. for Industry & Security Kenneth Juster issued reminder Mon. that U.S. businesses and citizens were prohibited from participating in unsanctioned govt. boycotts. He said BIS, formerly known as Bureau of Export Administration, had long history of enforcing antiboycott rules and had levied tens of millions of dollars in civil penalties on and denied export privileges to violators.
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Juster said: “The U.S. government is strongly opposed to restrictive trade practices or boycotts targeted against Israel. The Commerce Department is closely monitoring efforts that appear to be made to reinvigorate the Arab League boycott of Israel and will use all of its resources to vigorously enforce U.S. antiboycott regulations.”
Several efforts are under way to counteract effects of boycott and increasingly volatile security situation in Israel. They include Web-based initiative by Israeli Embassy in Washington, known as The Israeli Partnership, to promote communications, software and other high-tech companies in Israel. Unrelated to boycott is Va.-Israel Advisory Board, created by Va. Governor’s Office, which conducts Va.-Israel Tech Alliance (VITAL) in conjunction with Va. Tech to help Israeli-based businesses expand in U.S.
Although 18 members of Arab League voted in favor of resuming intermittent half-century-old campaign, members with diplomatic ties to Israel -- Egypt, Jordan, Mauritania -- declined to participate in meeting, American Jewish Congress (AJC) said. AJC Legal Dir. Marc Stern said he was confident that Commerce’s Office of Boycott Compliance “will continue to be vigilant in monitoring American forums to ensure that even a limited number of them do not bow to undoubted Arab pressures to boycott Israel.” Group also cautioned that U.S.-based trade could be harmed by reinstated boycott since it would include “tertiary boycotts” of U.S. firms doing business with Israel.
Arab American Institute (AAI) said tertiary boycotts weren’t expected to “seriously affect U.S. trade” with participating members of Arab League and Organization of Islamic Conferences. However, AAI said such action indicated “growing grass-roots efforts by the public to signal their displeasure with U.S. support for Israel’s occupation policies and actions against Palestinians.”
Previous reports on foreign trade barriers by Office of U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) counter that assertion, U.S. Embassy in Israel said on its Web site. Referring to an excerpt from one such USTR report, Embassy said secondary and tertiary boycotts were indeed “impediment to U.S. trade and investment in the Middle East and North Africa… The secondary boycott prohibits any entity in Arab League states from engaging in business with U.S. or other firms that contribute to Israel’s military or economic development. The tertiary boycott prohibits business dealings with U.S. and other firms that do business with blacklisted companies.”