Key facts
- A US legal group, Global Echo Litigation Center, has threatened legal action against the UK's HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
- The group alleges that goods from Israeli settlements, including those in the occupied West Bank, have entered the UK tariff-free.
- A four-year investigation by Global Echo found that some shipments were falsely labelled as Israeli-grown.
- The letter to HMRC claims the system for verifying the origin of Israeli products is flawed.
- Global Echo is calling for increased checks on imports declared as Israeli.
A US-based non-profit legal group, Global Echo Litigation Center, has threatened legal action against Britain's HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for allegedly allowing goods from Israeli settlements to enter the UK tariff-free. According to a letter sent in July by law firm Leigh Day, agricultural products from Israeli settlements, including those in the occupied West Bank, have been entering the UK in breach of trade rules. Some goods labelled as Israeli were produced in occupied Palestine, contravening UK guidelines that require such products to be clearly labelled as originating from settlements to avoid misleading consumers.
Although the UK has a free trade agreement with Israel, Israeli settlement goods do not qualify for preferential tariff treatment. Global Echo's four-year investigation, examining over 30,000 export documents for thousands of Israeli shipments to the UK and EU over eight years, found that one in six shipments contained agricultural produce originating from illegal settlements in occupied Palestinian territories and the Syrian Golan Heights. At least 42 percent were falsely labelled as Israeli-grown.
The letter, seen by Sky News, accused HMRC of failing to determine the real source of UK imports, describing the system used to verify the origin of Israeli products as "flawed." Global Echo stated that goods produced in settlements have "unlawfully benefitted" from reduced import duties. The non-profit called on HMRC to classify imports declared as Israeli as high risk and strengthen checks to ensure compliance with trade rules.
There is mounting pressure on the British government to adopt stronger measures on Israel amid rising settler violence and Israeli plans to expand illegal settlements. Polling of Labour members earlier this year showed that 87 percent support a ban on trade with Israeli settlements.