← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Centinel
Thread ID: 15986 | Posts: 7 | Started: 2004-12-15
2004-12-15 16:53 | User Profile
From Patriot News: [url]http://www.allamericanpatriots.com/m-news+article+storyid-3930-PHPSESSID-cc3247ea707bd98668734071ba422c13.html[/url]
**Egyptian Goods with Israeli Content Bound for U.S. Market To Get Duty-Free Treatment
USTR Zoellick heading to Cairo to sign agreement**
11 December 2004
Representatives of Egypt, Israel and the United States are scheduled to sign an economic agreement allowing Egypt to export duty free to the U.S. market certain goods containing Israeli-made components, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) says. In a December 10 press release, USTR said the agreement would create what are called qualified industrial zones (QIZs) in Egypt: Cairo, Alexandria and the Suez Canal.
The QIZs in Egypt, like those already established in Jordan, will allow Egyptians to export to the United States duty-free certain products that contain inputs from Israel. The aim of the QIZs, authorized by Congress in 1996 for Egypt and Israel, is to encourage regional economic integration in the Middle East.
Signing of the agreement is scheduled during U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick's December 13-14 trip to Cairo.
"This is the most important economic agreement between Egypt and Israel in two decades," Zoellick said. "It is a concrete, practical result of President Bush's plan to promote closer U.S. trade ties with the Middle East so as to strengthen development, openness, and peaceful economic links between Israel and its neighbors."
Following is the text of the press release:
(begin transcript)
The Office of the United States Trade Representative
United States, Egypt and Israel to Launch Historic Trade Partnership USTR Zoellick to Participate in Signing in Cairo
12/10/2004
WASHINGTON, DC -- United States Trade Representative Robert B. Zoellick will travel to Cairo, Egypt, on December 13-14, 2004, to participate in the signing of an historic trade partnership involving Egypt, Israel, and the United States. The agreement, to be signed by Egyptian Minister of Foreign Trade and Industry Rachid Mohamed Rachid and Israeli Vice Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, will create Qualified Industrial Zones (QIZs) in Egypt, allowing for duty-free export to the U.S. of certain Egyptian goods that contain Israeli inputs.
"This is the most important economic agreement between Egypt and Israel in two decades," Zoellick said. "It is a concrete, practical result of President Bush's plan to promote closer U.S. trade ties with the Middle East so as to strengthen development, openness, and peaceful economic links between Israel and its neighbors. These industrial zones will create a daily opportunity to build business and personal relationships among Egyptians, Israelis, and Americans. Our successful experience with Jordan suggests that establishing QIZs in Egypt will significantly expand trade, promote investment, and create hope."
The QIZ program was established by the United States in 1996 to encourage economic cooperation, closer ties, and peaceful relations between Israel and its QIZ partners. Under this program the U.S. Trade Representative must work with the countries and approve the new QIZs to support development and trade.
The establishment of such zones in Egypt builds on other steps recently taken by the United States to promote economic freedom in the region. President Bush has proposed the creation of a Middle East Free Trade Area (MEFTA) by 2013. The United States currently has Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with Israel, Jordan, and Morocco; an FTA with Bahrain that is pending Congressional approval; and will begin FTA negotiations with the United Arab Emirates and Oman early next year. The United States is working with Egypt's new economic reform team to deepen our reciprocal trade relationship. The Egyptian QIZ can serve as a first step in what we hope will be a continuing path of deepening economic ties.
The 1996 U.S. law authorizing QIZs enables either Jordan or Egypt to export products duty free to the United States provided they contain input from Israel. The United States has been discussing with Israel and Egypt their specific QIZ request since September; until now, QIZs have been established only in Jordan. The Egypt QIZs will increase practical business contacts among Egyptians, Israelis, and Americans, serving as a catalyst for expanded trade among our countries.
This will be Ambassador Zoellick's third trip to Egypt as U.S. Trade Representative. He traveled to Cairo in June 2002 to meet with senior Egyptian officials and U.S. and Egyptian business representatives to discuss the bilateral trade relationship. He returned to Egypt in June 2003 for an informal World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting to discuss ongoing global trade negotiations with WTO trade ministers. Ambassador Zoellick travels to Egypt directly after a trip to Africa and Europe, where he has focused on advancing the WTO negotiations and promoting bilateral trade and development initiatives.
Background on Qualified Industrial Zones (QIZs)
In 1996, Congress authorized designation of qualifying industrial zones (QIZs) between Israel and Egypt, and Israel and Jordan. The QIZs allow Egypt and Jordan to export products to the United States duty-free if the products contain inputs from Israel. The purpose of this trade initiative has been to support the prosperity and stability in the Middle East by encouraging regional economic integration.
In order for a QIZ article to gain duty-free entry, QIZ factories must add at least 35 percent to the value of the article. This 35 percent minimum content figure can include value added in Israel, Egypt, or the United States. QIZs must encompass portions of Egypt and Israel, though the areas do not have to be contiguous.
The United States has approved the request of Egypt and Israel to designate three QIZs -- the Greater Cairo QIZ; the Alexandria QIZ; and the Suez Canal Zone QIZ that includes an industrial area of Port Said. Since 1999, the United States has designated thirteen QIZs in Jordan. The United States and Jordan negotiated a full FTA [free trade agreement] that Congress approved in 2001. Exports from Jordan to the United States grew from $31 million in 1999 to $674 million in 2003.
Jordan's QIZs are the country's strongest engine of job growth. Jordan estimates that more than 35,000 jobs have been created within its QIZs. Investment in Jordan's QIZs is currently at between $85-100 million and is expected to grow to $180 to $200 million. Similar benefits are expected to flow from the QIZs in Egypt.
Background on Middle East Free Trade Area Initiative (MEFTA)
In May 2003, the President proposed a plan of graduated steps for nations in the Middle East and Mahgreb to increase trade and investment with the United States and others in the world economy. The first step is to work closely with peaceful nations that seek to become members of the WTO in order to expedite their accession. As countries in the region implement domestic reform agendas, institute the rule of law, protect property rights (including intellectual property), and create a foundation for openness and economic growth, the United States is taking a series of graduated steps, tailored to the countries' level of development.
The United States is expanding and deepening economic ties through comprehensive Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), Trade and Investment Framework Agreements (TIFAs), and Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs), and is working to enhance the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program for eligible countries. The FTA with Israel was completed in 1985. This Administration has concluded two additional FTAs, with Morocco and Bahrain; implemented a third, with Jordan; will soon initiate two more, with the United Arab Emirates and Oman; and signed nine TIFAs and two BITs with nations in the Middle East and Mahgreb that are not current U.S. FTA partners.
(end transcript)
2004-12-15 17:04 | User Profile
[url]http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/514453.html[/url]
Egypt and Israel sign U.S.-brokered trade agreement
By Haaretz Staff and Agencies December 15, 2004
Israel and Egypt signed a trade deal yesterday that could ensure thousands of Egyptian jobs and secure the two countries' often problematic relations.
In a press conference in Cairo, Trade and Industry Minister Ehud Olmert and Egyptian Foreign Trade Minister Rashid Mohammed Rashid hailed the deal as the most important economic agreement between Egypt and Israel in two decades.
Before the signing, Olmert met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. In what Olmert described as a positive meeting, the two concentrated mainly on trade issues between the neighboring countries.
The trade pact, brokered by the United States, will enable Egypt to export goods to America duty-free as long as a minimum percentage is made in Israel.
It establishes so-called Qualified Industrial Zones in parts of Cairo, Alexandria and Port Said, where the goods are to be assembled.
Egyptians who oppose relations with Israel have already criticized the deal, saying it gives Israel too much economic leverage. And Egyptians who favor it have criticized the government for leaving some industrial areas out of the zones.
Egyptian manufacturers of clothes and textiles - the country's number one export - say the agreement could create 250,000 jobs next year. Political opponents deride this figure as far-fetched, but the Qualified Industrial Zones that were set up in Jordan have seen their exports to the United States rise to a massive $800 million a year in five years, creating 40,000 jobs in an economy that is much smaller than Egypt's.
"I cannot give you numbers but this agreement will create many work opportunities for Egyptians," Israeli Embassy spokesman Israel Tikochinski said Monday.
Israel's goals are sociopolitical. While Egypt and Israel signed a peace agreement in 1979, their relations have long been chilly.
Israel wants it to become acceptable for Egyptians to visit Israel to seek business partners. At the moment, "normalization" - contact with Israelis - is a dirty word in Egypt. Many professional unions prohibit it and expel members found to have visited Israel or to be working with Israelis.
In a statement Monday, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said that the agreement will increase trade and that Israel "hopes the movement of goods and entrepreneurs will lead to warmer relations between the peoples, giving expression to the fruits of peace."
As Tikochinski put it: "The idea behind this agreement is to encourage people-to-people contact."
And some Egyptians see trade with Israel as the way to go. The vice chairman of the Chamber of Textile Industries, Mohammed Kassim, says the accord is a lifeline for a sector that employs 1 million people and was going to be hit hard by competition from China and India when World Trade Organization quotas are lifted in January.
The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Trade and Industry said it received delegations last weekend of business executives and workers who complained that their exclusion from the zones "would lead to factory closures and layoffs." One delegation came from Ismailiya, the city with the biggest textile industry, which lies outside the zones.
The ministry said in a statement it will provide support for companies to meet the criteria for Qualified Industrial Zones in the future.
A small group of Egyptians opposed to economic globalization protested in central Cairo under the slogan "Egyptian workers are not for sale".
The protesters said the "script" for the industrial zones was American, the management Israeli, the finance from the Gulf and only the workers Egyptian.
2004-12-15 17:20 | User Profile
As you know (but more problably you don't) the Israeli bar code numbers starts with the numbers 729, by sending their product from Egypt whos starting numbers are 622 they will camuflage their product in order for people like me who dosen't buy IsraelI products buy them.
DO NOT BUY PRODUCTS WITH THE FIRST THREEE BAR CODE NUMBERS BEING 729.
2004-12-15 17:26 | User Profile
So likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation), facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation.
As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public councils Such an attachment of a small or weak towards a great and powerful nation dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter.
Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy to be useful must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests.
The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop. Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none; or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.
Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a different course. If we remain one people under an efficient government. the period is not far off when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take such an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interest, guided by justice, shall counsel.
Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor or caprice?
It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world; so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements. I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy. I repeat it, therefore, let those engagements be observed in their genuine sense. But, in my opinion, it is unnecessary and would be unwise to extend them.
Taking care always to keep ourselves by suitable establishments on a respectable defensive posture, we may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies.
Harmony, liberal intercourse with all nations, are recommended by policy, humanity, and interest. But even our commercial policy should hold an equal and impartial hand; neither seeking nor granting exclusive favors or preferences; consulting the natural course of things; diffusing and diversifying by gentle means the streams of commerce, but forcing nothing; establishing (with powers so disposed, in order to give trade a stable course, to define the rights of our merchants, and to enable the government to support them) conventional rules of intercourse, the best that present circumstances and mutual opinion will permit, but temporary, and liable to be from time to time abandoned or varied, as experience and circumstances shall dictate; constantly keeping in view that it is folly in one nation to look for disinterested favors from another; that it must pay with a portion of its independence for whatever it may accept under that character; that, by such acceptance, it may place itself in the condition of having given equivalents for nominal favors, and yet of being reproached with ingratitude for not giving more. There can be no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation. It is an illusion, which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard.
God save the Republic.
2004-12-15 17:47 | User Profile
This smells to me like a smokescreen by ZOG to get Israeli goods into US markets under the guise that they're "Egyptian" in anticipation of anti-Israel sentiments by US purchasers.
2004-12-15 17:49 | User Profile
Thanks Tex., first time I have read this and it does apply to the here now.
One brownie point for our first president.
2004-12-15 17:53 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Centinel]This smells to me like a smokescreen by ZOG to get Israeli goods into US markets under the guise that they're "Egyptian" in anticipation of anti-Israel sentiments by US purchasers.[/QUOTE]
That's as plausible an explanation as any I can think of, Centinel. The bottom-line is here we are injecting ourselves into Egyptian/Israeli politics, thinking that we can micromanage and spread money around to make everybody love each other. What Israel and Egypt do between themselves is their business. Why do we have to prostitute ourselves and our import market to try and get them to get along with each other?