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 Was America's First Bilateral Trade Agreement a Good Deal?

EVENT: Author Grant F. Smith discusses his book Spy Trade about myths and realities of US-Israel trade and economic relations.
TIME, DATE, PLACE: 5:15 p.m.Wednesday, April 6 in room 1101, Dewey Hall, University of Rochester. 
BACKGROUND:
1.Negotiating the USIFTA in 1984-985: economics, espionage, public relations and politics.
2.Trade disputes, market access challenges, job creation and quantitative/comparative review.
3. �Israeli economic miracle� or US foreign aid?  Is war now a comparative advantage?
4. Was it a good deal or is the US subsidizing perpetual conflict?
SPONSOR: This lecture is sponsored by the undergraduate Finance and Economics Council.  It is offered to provide an "equal time" response to Dan Senor's Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle presentation which took place on campus February 23, 2011.

:12 Start-Up Nation vs. Spy Trade
1:55 Cost of policy recommendations
2:10 Start-Up Nation: quotes, case studies, chutzpah
3:35 Incomplete research/faulty recommendations
3:40 Spy Trade: primary research, secret documents
4:13 US-Israel trade agreement
6:30 Congressional bans on military aid to Contras
7:34 DoD guarantees of economic aid for covert support
8:22 Pentagon-Israeli military/economic agreements
9:07 AIPAC's drive for military industrial integration
9:40 Movement toward bilateral trade agreement
10:20 1984 fast-track trade negotiation process
11:45 US industries (76) lobbying against bilateral trade deal with Israel
12:54 Bromine Alliance, Monsanto, AFL-CIO opposition
13:25 Organizations (23) in favor: AIPAC in lead
14:22  Israeli/AIPAC obtain 300 pages of classified US industry data
15:23 AIPAC lobbies for deal claiming no harm to US industry
15:45 US Bromine Alliance key market and cost information lost to Israel
16:40 Dan Halpern - Israeli minister of economics PR for deal
17:30
Providence Journal: FTA is foreign aid, not free trade
18:00 September 1, 1985 FTA ratification
18:21 Jonathan Pollard espionage discovered - FBI reopens trade document investigation
18:55 AIPAC employees admit obtaining, copying document after return order - source: Israel
19:44 FBI investigates Israeli embassy - diplomatic immunity claims, "promises"
20:57 US Trade Representative refuses to declassify trade report
21:41 Iran-Contra scandal explodes, publicity, felons, pardons
23:20 Enduring Israeli trade preferences, what did the US get out of it?
24:09 Chart: the Israel trade anomaly - chronic deficits unique among bilaterals
24:50 Other trade pacts that are not foreign aid produce no chronic deficits
25:53 Trade policies and the growing US trade deficit
26:30 Chile, Singapore - other bilateral trade agreements that produce surplus or random walk
27:10 What does the US get in return for increased foreign aid to Israel?
28:27 Spy Trade: accountability.  Start-up Nation, US demand as a "right"
29:50 Start-up Nation can't imagine serving Arab demand
30:08 US consumes 40% of Israeli goods exports
30:35 How Israel violates other nations intellectual property
31:00 Start-up Nation error of omission #1: Violations of US pharmaceutical patents
33:00 Start-up Nation error of omission #2: Israel's nuclear weapons program
34:40 US was opposed Israel going nuclear
35:34 NUMEC: Unauthorized US participation in Israel's nuclear weapons program
36:10 NUMEC espionage: Rafael Eitan, Ephraim Beigun, Avraham Bendor, Avraham Hermoni
37:31 NUMEC highly enriched uranium went into Israeli nuclear weapons program
38:39 Start-up Nation hero Shimon Peres: attempted sale of nuke missiles to apartheid S. Africa
39:15 1945-2010 continuous Israeli military-industrial espionage against the United States
40:55 Israel as a top global weapons exporter.....of US designs
41:55 Leaders of Israeli military-industrial espionage
43:13 Start-up Nation: Selling constant conflict as a competitive advantage
44:02 Does the US really owe Israel anything?
44:38 Is the Israeli approach to the US sustainable, or is an inflection point coming?
45:13 Start-up Nation recommendation: Conscription in the US...a really bad idea
46:40 Conclusion: flawed policies have large economic consequences
47:49 Should Israel pay for the $170 million NUMEC cleanup?
48:39 Accountability and bona fide advice and consent in the US needed
49:20 Future policymakers now in US universities
49:28 Question and Answers

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