Pursuant to Article 2, Annex II of the Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel, Egypt's participation in the Arab economic boycott of Israel was formally terminated on January 25, 1980. On the basis of this action, it is the Department's position that certain requests for information, action or agreement which were considered boycott-related by implication now cannot be presumed boycott-related and thus would not be prohibited or reportable under the Regulations. For example, a request that an exporter certify that the vessel on which it is shipping its goods is eligible to enter Arab Republic of Egypt ports has been considered a boycott-related request that the exporter could not comply with because Egypt has a boycott in force against Israel (see 43 FR 16969, April 21, 1978 or the 15 CFR edition revised as of January 1, 1979). Such a request after January 25, 1980 would not be presumed boycott-related because the underlying boycott requirement/basis for the certification has been eliminated. Similarly, a U.S. company would not be prohibited from complying with a request received from Egyptian government officials to furnish the place of birth of employees the company is seeking to take to Egypt, because there is no underlying boycott law or policy that would give rise to a presumption that the request was boycott-related.
U.S. persons are reminded that requests that are on their face boycott-related or that are for action obviously in furtherance or support of an unsanctioned foreign boycott are subject to the Regulations, irrespective of the country or origin. For example, requests containing references to “blacklisted companies”, “Israel boycott list”, “non-Israeli goods” or other phrases or words indicating boycott purpose would be subject to the appropriate provisions of the Department's antiboycott regulations.