I saw this in the comments on another site, and I’m reposting it here, as this deserves a post all on its own.
Victoria’s Secret underwear will generally say it is made in one of two places: the U.S.A. or Israel. If they’re made in the USA, they are made by prisoners, and that’s that. If they say “Made in Israel”, they weren’t. The US has a very unique trade agreement with Israel. See, GENERALLY a label must say what country the garment was actually ASSEMBLED in. So, if (and this happens a lot) the material is cut in Country1 and shipped to Country2 to be stitched together, then the label must say “Made in Country2.”
HOWEVER this is not so under our agreement with Israel. You look at that label, you think “Made in Israel. Well, they have pretty good labor conditions and a fairly well-off population, so labor conditions can’t be that bad there.” Well, sure, they probably aren’t that bad. But that underwear was not made in Israel. Under this agreement, material can be cut in Israel and shipped elsewhere (to any of the impoverished 3rd world nations near Israel) to be assembled, and it can still say “Made in Israel.” So regardless of where your Vickie’s underwear says it was made, you know people were exploited.
So I looked up the Trade Agreement Between Israel and the USA, and here’s what it says about country of origin:
4. For the purposes of this Agreement; “country of origin” requires that an article or material, not wholly the growth, product, or manufacture of a Party, be substantially transformed into a new and different article of commerce, having a new name, character, of use, distinct from the article or material from which it was so transformed.
Now as much as there’s some ‘lawyerese’ in there this sounds pretty loose to me.
Let us compare this to the equivalent rules of the trade agreement between Australia and the USA:
Article 5.1 : Originating Goods
For the purposes of this Agreement, an originating good means:
(a) a good wholly obtained or produced entirely in the territory of one or both of the Parties;
(b) a good produced entirely in the territory of one or both of the Parties where
(i) each of the non-originating materials used in the production of the good undergoes an applicable change in tariff classification specified in Annex 4-A (Textile and Apparel Specific Rules of Origin) or Annex 5-A (Product-Specific Rules of Origin); or
(ii) the good otherwise satisfies any applicable regional value content; or
(iii) the good meets any other requirements specified in Annex 4-A or Annex 5-A; and
the good satisfies all other applicable requirements of this Chapter or Chapter 4;
(c) a good produced entirely in the territory of one or both of the Parties exclusively from originating materials; or
(d) a good that otherwise qualifies as an originating good under this Chapter or Chapter 4.
Wow, that sounds much more strict.
The bottom line? I believe the message from the comments on the other site was an accurate representation of what we allow Israel to get away with. Of course we all know these sweet deals are bought and paid for by AIPAC, the lobbying group for Israel that bribes, oops, I mean “lobbies” our elected officials to do favors for Israel.
Am I the only one who has a huge problem with that?
