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Thread ID: 7835 | Posts: 6 | Started: 2003-07-03
2003-07-03 22:40 | User Profile
North Kansas City company settles charge related to boycott of Israel
by Dan Margolies, Kansas City Star June 25, 2003
Cook Composites and Polymers Co. has agreed to pay a $6,000 fine to settle charges that it violated Commerce Department regulations aimed at countering the Arab boycott of Israel.
The department's Bureau of Industry and Security had charged that, in response to a request from a customer in Bahrain, Cook had furnished information stating that the goods being shipped were not of Israeli origin and did not contain Israeli materials.
The bureau also charged that Cook had failed to report its receipt of the request.
Cook, of North Kansas City, neither admitted nor denied the allegations, but agreed to pay the $6,000 civil penalty.
The antiboycott provisions bar U.S. companies from providing information about their business relationships with Israel. They also require that receipt of boycott requests be reported to the Bureau of Industry and Security, formerly known as the Bureau of Export Administration.
Cook's chief executive, Charles Bennett, was in Paris this week and unavailable for comment. A spokeswoman for the company, Rita Durocher, said the fine marked the first time Cook has had a run-in with a federal agency.
"If you go back and look at our record, we've been flawless with other government agencies," she said.
Cook makes polyester gels and other coating resins. It operates plants throughout North America.
The settlement with the Commerce Department came after the Bush administration in November warned U.S. companies not to heed calls to boycott Israeli goods and services. The warning followed a call by the 22-member Arab League to reactivate its decades-long boycott of Israel.
In a statement released at the time by the department, Commerce Undersecretary for Industry and Security Kenneth Juster reminded American companies that the "U.S. government is strongly opposed to restrictive trade practices or boycotts targeted against Israel."
Knowing violators of the anti-boycott provisions face fines of up to $50,000, or five times the value of the exports at issue, and possible imprisonment. Offenders can also be denied export privileges.
The Bureau of Industry and Security says it has imposed more than $26 million in fines for violations of the provisions.
More than a decade ago, the Commerce Department sent compliance officers to Kansas City to check out tips that Marion Merrell Dow Inc. and Marley Cooling Tower Co. may have cooperated with the Arab boycott. Nothing came of the investigation, and no penalties were imposed.
In Cook's case, the Bureau of Industry and Security charged that Cook failed to report a letter of credit it received on Dec. 1, 1997, from ABN AMRO Bank in Manama, Bahrain. The letter asked it to confirm that the goods being shipped "are not of Israeli origin nor do they contain any Israeli"material.
The bureau also charged that on Jan. 20, 1998, Cook, through its freight forwarder, provided a U.S. bank with a copy of a commercial invoice confirming that the goods were not of Israeli origin and did not contain Israeli material.
Cook, with 558 employees overall and 120 employees locally, is one of North Kansas City's biggest employers. The company bills itself as the No. 1 producer of gel coats in the world and, together with affiliated companies, the No. 2 producer of resins.
Since 1990, Cook has had a joint venture relationship with the chemicals division of TotalFinaElf, a multibillion-dollar petrochemicals giant based in Paris.
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2003-07-03 22:53 | User Profile
I don't think Israel really produces anything of trading value. Well maybe except for firearms. US foreign aid is whats keeping the Israeli economy afloat. Otherwise Israel would among the poorest in the region. Israel doesn't have much in natural resources as well I don't think.
2003-07-03 22:57 | User Profile
*Originally posted by perun1201@Jul 3 2003, 16:53 * ** I don't think Israel really produces anything of trading value. Well maybe except for firearms. US foreign aid is whats keeping the Israeli economy afloat. Otherwise Israel would among the poorest in the region. Israel doesn't have much in natural resources as well I don't think. **
Yes, I don't believe Israel exports much of value, either. It's economy depends mostly on handouts from Uncle Sam, wealthy Jews in the US, and gullible pro-Zionist fundamentalist Christian sheeple (ever see any of those "send a a poor, persecuted Russian Jew back to Israel for $350" infomercials?). it has little in human resources either-most of the highly qualified and educated Jews immigrate to the US or Germany. Ogranized crime is also an important sector of the Israeli economy. Of course, cheap labor is readily available in the form of young palestinian men who have no prospects for the future in the Israeli apartheid state.
2003-07-03 23:07 | User Profile
Yes, I don't believe Israel exports much of value, either. It's economy depends mostly on handouts from Uncle Sam, wealthy Jews in the US, and gullible pro-Zionist fundamentalist Christian sheeple (ever see any of those "Send a a poor, persecuted Russian jew back to Israel for $350" commercials?). it has little in human resources either-most of the highly qualified and educated Jews immigrate to the US or Germany.
Yes I have seen those commericals with the crappy "We are leaving Mother Russia" song. "Fiddler on the Roof" was much better :naughty:
As for the fundelmenalist christians, they pervert Christian teachings so much its not even funny. I like how some accuse the Catholic Church of being satanic. Then TBN or 700 Club stuff about the end of the world. Like Hal Lindsey's "Intelligence Briefing".
Yet Jesus himself said "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, render unto God what is God's". So Jesus himself realized and accepted Roman troops occupying the Holy Land. As he also told Pilate, God's kingdom is not of this earth's. I don't know the exact passages but they're in the Bible.
However many are trying to protray Jesus as a violent zealot and that the Apostles perverted Jesus's story in order to make more apprioate to spread the word of a convict in the Roman Empire. One author who wrote a book on Jesus' brother James advocates this view.
Anyways, the only thing of value Israel produces are firearms, yet an entire economy cannot be based on that. Israel doesn't even sell their weapons that much either, except maybe to western militaries.
**Ogranized crime is also an important sector of the Israeli economy. Of course, cheap labor is readily available in the form of young palestinian men who have no prospects for the future in the Israeli apartheid state. **
Its like Chicago 1920's or Shanghai 1930's were the government and organized crime worked together.
2003-07-03 23:41 | User Profile
I often feel We already live in a Soviet America.
**In a statement released at the time by the department, Commerce Undersecretary for Industry and Security Kenneth Juster reminded American companies that the "U.S. government is strongly opposed to restrictive trade practices or boycotts targeted against Israel."
Knowing violators of the anti-boycott provisions face fines of up to $50,000, or five times the value of the exports at issue, and possible imprisonment. Offenders can also be denied export privileges.
The Bureau of Industry and Security says it has imposed more than $26 million in fines for violations of the provisions.**
2003-07-04 17:27 | User Profile
If it were any other country on Earth with Izzy's human-rights record, such a "ban'" would already be policy. And you'd be fined for not answering the question.