What a surprise! A union between commercial interests and the government, the only surprise being in this case it concerns another nation.

This is nasty. The government of Israel stole diplomatic information on trade and commerce and handed it over to their business community giving those businesses an enormous and illicit advantage.

When should the government cooperate with industry? We can argue over where and when it is ethical. But can we really argue with direct illegality? I don’t think so. It was wrong to use privileged information, not just because it was illegal but because it endangers all future international cooperation.

This is not the first time the government of Israel has acted as a rogue government. It will not be the last.

James Pilant

Grant F. Smith | IRmep | May 24, 2011 WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today the Section 301 Committee of the US Trade Representative formally received a petition demanding $6.64 billion in compensation for US exporters. In 1984 US exporters were urged to submit business confidential data about their prices, market share, internal costs and market strategy to the International Trade Commission. The USTR guaranteed confidentiality and compiled the dat … Read More

via Aletho News