Mr. Elmar Brok, Chairman of the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, welcomed the latest Council conclusions on the Middle East Peace Process and, in particular, the statement that the EU strongly opposes any boycott of Israel.
Chairman Brok said: 'The Commission's interpretative notice on indication of origin of goods from the territories occupied by Israel in 1967, popularly referred to as 'labelling guidelines', has nothing to do with a boycott, with sanctions or with discrimination against Israel. The notice doesn't introduce any new law or rule. It only clarifies the uniform implementation of EU law across its Member States. More importantly, it doesn't bar settlement products from entering Europe. They will just not benefit from trade preferences. Products originating from within Israel's internationally recognised borders will continue to benefit from preferential tariff treatment. I am against boycotting them'.
The products potentially affected by the EU's 'labelling guidelines' represent less than 1% of total trade between the EU and Israel.
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© European Union, 2016 - EP