WAMU 88.5 American University Radio
Grant Smith, IRmep:
What would induce Arab countries to normalize trade relations with Israel?
When the US negotiated the US Israel Free Trade Area in 1984, when you were still at AIPAC, and you'll remember that AIPAC got a hold of the classified USTR report for that negotiation, you negotiated a deal which reversed the trading relationship from a US surplus to a $71 billion deficit to the US, equivalent to about 100,000 jobs per year. It locked out agricultural products from the US, Israel has become a huge problem in terms of commercializing patented clinical dossiers from pharmaceutical companies, and counterfeit drugs, it's used access to the US market to build a diamond export market which funds illegal settlements.
If that's the way Israel treats friends, why would Arab countries want to subject themselves to opening up to all that?
Martin Indyk, Saban Center:
Well, that's a highly tendentious way of describing free trade arrangements...
...the fact is that the US-Israel Free Trade Agreement served as a wedge that opened up the Congress to Free Trade Agreements throughout the world, including the NAFTA agreement.
No doubt there are some downsides to it, but otherwise it's been a very positive thing.
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