Olmert Concedes EU Trade War Defeat

[Classical_Liberal]

Olmert Concedes EU Trade War Defeat

International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, November 25, 2003

Israeli Trade Minister Ehud Olmert has unexpectedly given up a five-year fight to keep the European Union from applying retroactive tariffs to Israeli goods produced in the territories, telling EU officials on Monday that Israel will now mark all local products with the city of origin.

Olmert said that Israel had decided to adopt a compromise solution in an effort to prevent further damage to the vital European market, which accounts for about one-third of all exports, after a series of nations began to impose punitive sanctions on all Israeli goods.

At the heart of the long-running dispute lies the EU’s refusal to recognize Judea, Samaria, East Jerusalem, Gaza or the Golan Heights as legitimately part of Israel and Brussels’ calls for labeling distinctions along the lines of the 1967 borders.

Israel has strongly opposed the EU demands as a back-door attempt to define its borders. Since Europe has a comparative trade agreement with the Palestinian Authority, it has argued that the tariffs serve no purpose other than to discriminate on the grounds of whether Jews or Arabs produce the goods in question, the value of which, in any case, is negligible......

http://www.truthnews.net/month/2003110120.htm