(New York Post) E.V. Kontorovich - Saudi Arabia recently joined 17 other Arab League states in a proclamation rededicating itself to the 50-year-old pan-Arab boycott of Israel and companies that do business with it. Riyadh is also in the advanced stages of negotiations to join the World Trade Organization, an institution dedicated to free and open trade between nations. The WTO treaties make boycotts like Saudi Arabia's illegal and secondary boycotts even more so. Riyadh's boycott of Jerusalem itself provides reason for at least Washington to block its accession. For the boycott proves that the sheiks have no problem using trade as a method of aggression, as war by other means. It is precisely this kind of hijacking of trade by politics - and racism and religious bigotry - that the WTO seeks to prevent.
2002-12-27 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive