Occupied Territories

Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs written question – answered at on 17 July 2013.

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Photo of Patrick Mercer Patrick Mercer Conservative, Newark

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what his policy is on a boycott of settlement goods from the West Bank.

Photo of Alistair Burt Alistair Burt The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

We understand the concerns of people who do not wish to purchase goods exported from Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It was in order to enable consumers to make a more fully informed decision concerning the products they buy that, in December 2009, the UK introduced voluntary guidelines to enable produce from Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories to be specifically labelled as such. We welcome Baroness Ashton's commitment to work with fellow Commissioners to prepare EU-wide guidelines on the labelling of settlement produce. These are an important step to ensure correct and coherent implementation of EU consumer protection and labelling legislation, which is in fulfilment of our previous commitments and is fully consistent with long-standing policy in relation to settlements. But there are currently no plans for EU or domestic legislation to ban the import of settlement products. We have received no representations from Palestinian workers in the West Bank either calling for, or opposing; a boycott of settlement produce.

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