Mr. Ronnie Downes:

In 2004, the EU and Israel reached a technical arrangement that required Israeli exporters to specify the postal code of the place of origin or manufacture of products exported into the Single Market. Turning to what I said in reply to Senator Higgins, there is no import ban or sanctions per se on products coming from occupied territories, but the labelling requirement that the EU insisted upon is intended to keep EU consumers informed of where the products originate from so that they can make informed choices. Products requiring this origin labelling may not carry the indication “Product of Israel”, as settlements do not form part of Israeli territory under international law, which Ireland accepts. We would not accept that any such indication would be correct. Indeed, we would regard it as misleading.

The labelling requirements were strengthened and copper-fastened in November 2019 when the European Court of Justice ruled that products originating from Israeli settlements on Palestinian territories must be labelled as such. This confirmed that accurate and non-misleading indication of origin labelling was an essential part of European commercial and consumer protection policy. The EU updated customs procedures for goods from Israel and clarified that goods from settlements could not benefit from preferential tariff treatment.

On the basis of all of that, we are satisfied that such goods would be indicated as to where they come from and would not benefit from the relatively freer flows of tariffs that operate under the EU-Israel association agreement.