In 2000, the European Union and Israel reached a free trade agreement. They stopped applying import tariffs. A protection was added in 2004: Products from illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories would be excluded from this benefit. Spanish customs and those of other EU countries had to separate some products from others based on zip code. Not done: Spain does not even know the volume of revenue from tariffs from Israel. A figure showing how much trade is allowed from illegal colonies. This was exposed in various parliamentary questions in Madrid and Brussels and condemned by human rights organizations, who reminded them that it is illegal and immoral to take advantage of the occupied territories.
Now, more than two decades after the agreement, the Ministry of Finance has mandated that products from Israel have a new certificate of origin code (called Taric) at Spanish customs. If the Israeli exporter does not want to pay customs dutyYou must prove that your property was not produced in the Occupied Territories. In the instruction of the Tax Office (AEAT) received by EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA, the statement “The certificate of origin held by the operator does not represent a place that does not enjoy preferential treatment under the EU-Israel Association Agreement”. The Prensa Iberica group. The new regulation is effective from this 16 May.
The West Bank, including East Jerusalem and Gaza, would form the Palestinian state as agreed in Oslo in 1993. But the Israeli government is occupying the West Bank militarily, blocking Gaza and supporting illegal settlements. There is West Bank at least 144 neighborhoods (from urbanization to small cities) and a total of 100 checkpoints that house nearly half a million Israelis. Its economy is mainly based on agricultural products such as wine or dates. These settlements are illegal for Spain, the EU, the United Nations, and the United States, among others. “According to international law, all agreements between Israel and the EU They must clearly state their inapplicability to the territory occupied by Israel since June 1967.”, recalled Valdis Dombrovskis, European Trade Commissioner two years ago.
The Israeli Embassy assures that it was not informed of this change, but did not comment on it further at press time.
The Tax Office explains to this newspaper that the technical change serves to “draw attention” to the exporter’s “compliance with an existing obligation”. If you’re going to claim preferential treatment for your goods, you need a “certificate or other document of origin that must refer to a place within the internationally recognized borders of the country”. This Treasury body therefore interprets that the new law “does not imply any change in the substance of the technical agreement to implement the protocol on the rules of origin of the EU-Israel Association Agreement adopted by the EU-Israel Customs Cooperation Committee in 1999″. December 2004”.
Human rights organizations want to go further. “If the settlements are illegal, why is their trade legal?” he asks. “Regulatory change is correct and replaces a vacuum (and cynicism) in the EU, but your profession is not escaping the profit problem and the EU’s policy of consent and complicity in the occupation and colonization of Israel”.
No import control from colonies
The new code created by the European Commission, “Y864”and should be included in all products from Israel from May 16. And this is the Israeli exporter “request tariff preferences It is enshrined in the EU-Israel Association Agreement”. That is, if you want to take advantage of the tariff exemption, you must prove that your product did not come from the Occupied Territories (the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including East Jerusalem according to the EU). ).
Theoretically, Spain and the rest of the countries already had a system that avoided conferring advantages on products of occupation. Exporters were needed Specify the city and zip code. But no one was watching him. Customs officials did not check the code on every package of dates or boxes of wine.
the text itself The Tax Office acknowledges the total lack of control: The volume of imports from the Occupied Territories is not even widely known. “The current system does not allow Member States to collect statistical information on the volume and types of goods imported from their settlements.” It will now request a proof of origin, not the inclusion of the zip code. “The purpose of this new Taric certificate code facilitating and improving compliance will be made by operators and will, for the first time, allow Member States to collect statistics on the EU’s trade in contracted goods”. With this new code, the customs authorities of Spain and other EU countries can easily identify the import of products “actually originating in Israel.” without having to do documentary reviews “evidence of origin presented,” argues AEAT.
So far, and for example, a two-pound pack of Medjoul dates There are two locations imported from Israel by Agrifood Marketing firm. The first is where the company is located in Haifa, Israel. The other is the origin. “Israel Product: Meshek Oren, ZIP Code 8682000”. It should now also contain the code of the certificate of origin, which in principle should allow for the systematic control of these imports.
This does not guarantee that trade with the colonies will harden. “Agricultural food. for example, it manufactures and packs in settlements in the Jordan Valley,” explains González Vallejo. “They’re listed as Israeli, not because they were made in the Occupied Territories.”
Spain 818 million euros worth of imported goods from Israel in 2021: machines and mechanical devices, plastic materials, organic, electrical and optical chemicals, among others.
Commission Brakes
In 2021, the Commission sought to block a European Citizens Initiative calling for a suspension of trade between the EU and illegal settlements resulting from military occupation. He claimed that he had no authority to impose sanctions on third countries.. Proponents took the matter to the European courts of justice, who agreed with them: excluding occupied territories from the front post of non-payment of customs duties is not a sanction, as the community manager claimed, but rather the enforcement of a trade agreement. And therefore, it is up to the Commission to ensure compliance.
In this regard, the hardening of the requirements took place. “There is room to make the system more robust and to ensure that settlements’ assets do not benefit from commercial choices,” the Tax Office’s new Instruction states.