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Arab Boycott-Related Requests Increase in 2006(November 2, 2006)The United States Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security noted a sharp increase in Arab boycott-related requests in 2006. A total of 201 requests were made by Arab states in 2005, an average of less than 17 per month. In only the first six months of 2006, US companies reported receiving 120 boycott requests, an average of about 20 per month. This is an increase of almost 20 percent from 2005. At least seven Arab countries, including US allies Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, and Iraq, are enforcing the Arab boycott more actively in 2006 than they had in 2005. The top offenders were the UAE, which made forty boycott-related requests in the first six months of 2006, and Syria, which made twenty. Boycott-related requests came in many forms. US companies received requests from the UAE and Saudi Arabia that they stop doing business with Israel, while Libya asked American firms for “negative certificates of origin,” pledging that the goods or parts did not originate in Israel.
Source: Jerusalem Post, (November 2, 2006) |
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