OBAMA WATCH CENTRAL
OBAMA ORDER SETS STAGE FOR BOYCOTT OF ISRAELI GOODS
White House reinterprets old directive to punish businesses
Douglas Ernst
The Obama administration has found a way to use the international trade community to punish Israeli businesses and set the stage for a U.S. boycott of Israeli goods
A new memo by U.S. Customs and Border Protection takes a decades-old directive and reinterprets it in a way that forces businesses to label Israeli-made goods that have been produced in the West Bank.
“Goods produced in the West Bank or Gaza Strip shall be marked as originating from ‘West Bank,’ ‘Gaza,’ ‘Gaza Strip,’ ‘West Bank/Gaza,’ ‘West Bank/Gaza Strip,’ ‘West Bank and Gaza,’ or ‘West Bank and Gaza Strip,'” the Jan. 23 memo reads. “It is not acceptable to mark the aforementioned goods with the words ‘Israel,” ‘Made in Israel,’ ‘Occupied Territories-Israel,’ or any variation thereof.”
“Goods that are erroneously marked as products of Israel will be subject to an enforcement action carried out by U.S. Customs and Border Protection,” the memo states. “Goods entering the United States must conform to the U.S. marking statute and regulations promulgated thereunder,” the memo continues.
CBP said the directive is only meant “to provide guidance to the trade community regarding the country of origin.”
Pro-Israel groups do not agree. They see it as a perversion of a previous directive meant to promote the import of Palestinian goods produced in the West Bank, and a stage-setter for a boycott on Israeli products.
Omri Ceren, a managing director at The Israel Project, told the Washington Free Beacon on Thursday that Obama’s decision is an “incoherent” policy shift that “needlessly alienates Israel at a time when the Middle East is falling apart and U.S. allies are looking for signals about whose side the administration is on.”
“This is an administration that slaps labels on Jewish goods on a Saturday and has the president give a Holocaust Remembrance speech the next Wednesday,” Ceren said, the website reported.
A State Department official denied the charges.
“We are aware that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection re-issued guidance on their marking requirements,” the official told the Free Beacon on Thursday. “There has been no change in policy or in our approach to enforcement of marking requirements. Longstanding U.S. guidelines, dating to 1995, on country of origin product marking requires that products produced in the West Bank be marked as products of the West Bank, and products of Israel be marked as products of Israel.”
The Free Beacon noted that State Department Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner said on Nov. 10, 2015, that similar policies by European nations could be seen as a “step on the way” to a boycott of Israeli goods.
“So you think that [labeling will] inevitably going to lead to,” a reporter began before Toner replied.
“Not inevitably, but it could. … So current consumer guidelines on product origin labeling is what we’re talking about the EU doing. The issue is still under discussion. … It’s not a boycott per se, but could be taken as a boycott. … We oppose any – I would say any action that could be taken – again, this is – action has not been taken yet, but we oppose any boycott against Israel. I just said that very clearly.”
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2016/01/obama-order-sets-stage-for-boycott-of-israeli-goods/#SDbcsmtF8xJXDxgf.99My comments: Chrsitians should understand that Obama is Anti-Jewish, Anti-Christ and Against God and His Word. His Actions speak for themselves across a wide range of Issues.
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