RAMALLAH, WEST BANK—U.S. Commerce Deputy Secretary David A. Sampson today announced the Commerce Department will hire a trade facilitator to help Palestinian agents and distributors of U.S. products expedite blocked U.S. products to customers in the West Bank.
The facilitator will come on board later this month working directly for the Commerce Department to enhance market access in the region. They will be based in Ramallah, West Bank and will be dedicated to helping Palestinian agents and distributors to get their U.S. products faster to customers in the West Bank and Gaza.
"One of the major priorities for the Department of Commerce is to break down market access barriers for U.S. exports in global markets, including Palestinian markets. We hope this will ease delays at the border, which can be very costly, resulting in damaged goods, storage charges and lost customers," Sampson said.
The U.S. Commercial Service office in Jerusalem plays a key role in working with Israeli authorities to expedite blocked U.S. goods to their intended destinations in the West Bank and Gaza.
"Open markets and free trade are among the strongest forces for social change and democracy. I am proud that the Commercial Service is playing such a key role in working with Israeli authorities to expedite blocked U.S. goods to their Palestinian customers," Sampson said.
Palestinian importers face many obstacles including internal checkpoints and border crossings, which delay goods from arriving in a timely fashion.
Getting U.S. products across the border faster will strengthen U.S.-Palestinian trade and help keep Palestinian businesses afloat at this critical period of time. The U.S. Commercial Service will organize outreach meetings in the near future to explain how Palestinian companies can sign up for this new program.
The trade facilitator will be able to regularly intervene on-the-ground with key Israeli officials in the West Bank and at the Karni crossing about specific cases of blocked U.S. shipments, providing an extremely valuable service to U.S. exporters and their Palestinian customers. Most shipments destined for Gaza require coordination with Karni management officials to reserve a shipment time.
A broad range of American firms have distributorships and agents in the West Bank and Gaza. Motorola, Hewlett Packard, Dell, Proctor & Gamble, Coke, Pepsi, Checkers, General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, and Polycom are just some of the major U.S. companies exporting American-made products to the West Bank and Gaza.
The new program will be partially funded by the Commerce Department's Middle East North Africa Business Information Center (MENABIC) for a period of one year with a possible six-month extension. MENABIC is a multi-faceted, Congressionally-mandated U.S. Department of Commerce initiative that aims to strengthen U.S. business ties to North Africa, the Middle East, and the Gulf. MENABIC organizes trade events for U.S. firms and provides up-to-date business information, trends and specific commercial opportunities for U.S. firms in the Middle East and North Africa on its web site at www.export.gov/middleeast.
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce
