Two New York City freight forwarders and a Houston consultant and engineering company have agreed to pay fines for allegedly violating the U.S. laws against the Arab boycott of American companies discriminating against Israel, the U.S. Department of Commerce has announced.
The Department’s International Trade Administration said that the Pace Company Consultants and Engineers Inc. of Houston, Texas, has agreed to pay a civil penalty of $5000 for an alleged violation. The Department charged Pace with having complied with the request from the government of Kuwait that it has “no dealings whatsoever with Israel.”
The Rue Forwarding Company was fined $3000 and the Milton Snedeker Corporation was fined $1000. The Snedeker firm was involved in the sale and shipment of goods to Libya from New York to a Libyan buyer that included a statement that “the manufacturer is a U.S. factory and that there is no Israeli partnership or the like.” The Rue concern was involved in two separate transactions with a buyer in Kuwait and Dubai. Rue certified that the goods were not of Israeli material or origin, the Department reported.
The three companies fined were charged with violations in 1978. While neither admitting nor denying the alleged violations, the firms agreed to pay the civil penalties and to establish certain internal procedures to insure their further compliance with the law, the Department said.
According to a Commerce Department letter to John Dosher, Pace Company president, which was made public by the Department, Pace was engaged in 1978 in the “bidding and subsequent sale of a study conducted by its Houston, Texas facility to the government of Kuwait” when the violation occurred. The Pace Company was asked by the government of Kuwait to “furnish a statement” specifying “that you have no dealings whatsoever with Israel.” The Pace Company twice after that, in 1978 and 1979, replied that it “acknowledges that no business of any nature is presently conducted with Israel,” the Department reported.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
