Campaigners also claim that consumer boycotts against produce and goods originating in settlements are growing both in Israel and abroad.
Most of the trade deficit results from transactions with the industrialized countries of East Asia from which the bulk of imported manufactured goods originate.
Less than two years ago, only two EU countries – Britain and Denmark – backed the labelling of goods originating in settlements as such in order to allow consumers to make informed choices.
Until recently, most goods originating in Asia were sent by ship to ports on the West Coast, notably Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., and cargo intended for sale in the Midwest and on the East Coast was shipped east by train.
The EU has implemented tougher policies towards Israel by ensuring that goods originating in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank do not benefit from preferential tariffs granted to Israel.
Under the Navigation Act of 1651, all goods exported to England or its colonies had to be transported on English vessels or on ships from the country from which the goods originated.
Many draw a distinction between a settlement boycott – rejecting goods originating in Jewish colonies in the West Bank; cutting ties with settlement-based institutions; or demanding international companies divest from enterprises with links across the "green line" – and a boycott of Israel itself.
By terms of the Treaty of San Lorenzo, Spain, in 1795, had granted to the United States the right to ship goods originating in American ports through the mouth of the Mississippi without paying duty and also the right of deposit, or temporary storage, of American goods at New Orleans for transshipment.
Rather than simply attacking a criminal merchant of counterfeit goods, these companies can hunt down the factory where the goods originated.
The oldest of these agreements is the South Pacific Regional Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement (SPARTECA), which started in 1981 and granted Forum Island countries preferential (non-reciprocal) access to Australia and New Zealand for a specified selection of goods originating from FICs (Gold and Thakur 1982, Rolfe 2007).
