Urgent examination of suspected foreign interests of the Commissioner of Trade Duties

The cement importer sent on Thursday, April 23, 2020, an urgent request to the State Comptroller to open a rapid examination of the unusual conduct of the Commissioner of Trade Prosecutions in the Ministry of Economy expressing foreign considerations and major misconduct in trying to stem competition in the cement market in Israel. The company warns that Danny Tal’s recommendation last week to impose a 30% levy on imported cement would cause cement prices to rise in Israel. Evidence of irregularities raising suspicion of the commissioner’s conduct was found already in the commissioner’s investigation when it was carried out without authority and at the end the supervisor hastened to recommend the imposition of the levy, a recommendation previously unanimously rejected by the Professional Advisory Committee.

The company claims that the kidnapper led by the commissioner will raise about NIS 300 million a year for home buyers, with the main beneficiary of the increase being US billionaire Len Blavatnik, who owns the eagle, and eagle profits are expected to jump about 70% following the commissioner’s recommendation of trade levies. “The conduct of the Commissioner of Trade Prosecutions in the Ministry of Economy does serious damage to the economy and is contrary to any normal manager’s norm – the kidnapping he is trying to lead to a suspicion of cleanliness and foreign interests that require a quick examination of an external and independent factor, such as the State Comptroller,” the cement claims.

Symant: “The conduct of the Commissioner of Trade Prosecutions in the Ministry of Economy does serious damage to the economy and is contrary to any normal manager’s norm. The kidnapper led by the commissioner will raise about NIS 300 million a year for home buyers

In an appeal to the State Comptroller, Adv. Dror Strom, the former Antitrust Commissioner, who represents Symant, claims that the appeal is made in the light of exceptional conduct, which expresses its face, foreign considerations and major misconduct in one of the most important and important economic matters – an attempt to stimulate competition in the cement market in Israel. .

According to Strom, since Symant’s operations began in 2016, and the competition she faced against an eagle monopoly, Symant has experienced a three-year “torment” of investigations and damages from an unlawful proceeding against the import into Israel.

“This process began without authority, and in the end, an advisory committee appointed by professionals rejected the recommendation of the commissioner of trade levies to impose a 23 percent levy on cement imports – which was tens of percent higher in cement and concrete prices in Israel. The Advisory Committee ruled that it cannot ignore the monopoly status of Nesher and its huge profits, and impose a surcharge on the Israeli consumer public. Despite the committee’s decision, the minister decided to leave the investigation open and, just a few months later, the commissioner announced his decision to “re-examine” the issue of levy, the claims say.

‘We wrote to you already then that it was a wrong decision indicating that the supervisor’s opinion was locked. This week, unfortunately, we found out that we were right: the Commissioner recommended, after the end of an erroneous and trendy inquiry, to levy an even higher levy than he had recommended last time. All this without even checking if the foam exists at this time. This conduct of the Commissioner does serious damage to the cement and the Israeli economy in general. It goes against every norm of a proper manager and the potential for damage that can still be caused is tremendous. So, we ask you to examine it in a hurry, “they say in the cement.

Symant also said that “the commissioner did not even examine whether there was a flood today, but relied on his irrelevant findings from three years ago. The Commissioner also ignored the Corona crisis that was affecting us and treated the findings from a year ago as if they were up-to-date with the current reality.