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U.S. Decision on West Bank Labeling Helped Affirm Reality
(Newsweek) David Milstein - The Trump administration's decision on labeling requirements for goods exported from Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) into the U.S. is consistent with long-standing U.S. policy and practice, as well as prior agreements and the reality on the ground. That decision requires that goods produced where Israel continues to exercise administrative control in the West Bank under the Oslo Accords be labeled as "Product of Israel." In fact, to the present day, goods exported from Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria into the U.S. have used the word "Israel" without any consequences. After the Oslo Accords were signed, Congress amended the U.S.-Israel Free Trade Implementation Act in 1996 to give the president the authority to provide duty-free treatment for goods exported from the West Bank into the U.S. Both the law and President Bill Clinton's signed Proclamation 6955 on Nov. 13, 1996, provided that "articles of Israel may be treated as though they were articles directly shipped from Israel for the purposes of the Agreement even if shipped to the United States from the West Bank." The key point is that the U.S. has treated and continues to treat Israeli goods the same irrespective of their precise geographic origin. U.S. policy prior to the Oslo Accords mandated the word "Israel" on the label of all goods emanating from the West Bank. No one ever suggested throughout decades of Republican and Democratic administrations that this policy meant the U.S. was supporting Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank. Country of origin markings factually reflect who has control over a geographic area at a given time. They are not used as a tool to denote sovereignty. The writer served as special assistant to U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman.