Top Netanyahu donors’ West Bank winery seeks Trump’s help fighting EU
The Psagot winery has hired a former US ambassador to the EU to lobby against “settlement” labeling regulations.
An Israeli winery linked to the biggest donors to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has hired top lobbying talent to enlist the Donald Trump administration in a legal and political fight against the European Union.
The Psagot Winery in the West Bank settlement of the same name hired Covington and Burling in late September to battle pending EU regulations on country of origin labels, newly disclosed lobbying records show. The rules would require products from the West Bank and the Golan Heights to specify whether they were made in Israeli settlements, which critics say is discriminatory.
Covington’s registration simply states that the firm will provide “strategic advice and engagement” on the impact of the proposed regulations. But the lead lobbyist on the account, former US Ambassador to the EU Stuart Eizenstat, told Al-Monitor that the firm will make the case to US policymakers that the pending rules violate World Trade Organization regulations.
“I really can’t get into strategy, but I would just say that we think that the regulation violates WTO requirements, TBT (technical barriers to trade) regulations,” Eizenstat said. He added, “It’s not an appropriate use of regulations which were designed for safety and health food products, not for political products.”
