France and UK plan trade bans on goods from West Bank settlements

France and the United Kingdom have announced plans to prohibit trade in goods produced in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, coordinating with Canada and potentially other countries.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said France would begin a process to end commerce with the settlements. A French diplomatic source said as many as 12 countries could join the initiative, although the full list of participants and the legal status of their commitments were not detailed.

Britain announced a national trade ban on settlement-produced goods, saying the decision was being taken in coordination with France and Canada. The precise modalities of the British and French measures have yet to be finalised, and no implementation date has been announced.

French officials attributed the move to settlement expansion and increased violence against Palestinians by extremist settlers. They said the developments were undermining the prospects of a viable Palestinian state and creating a growing risk of instability in the West Bank and the wider region.

The measures are directed at settlement goods rather than Israeli commerce as a whole. France said the initiative was not a boycott of Israel.

The announcements come after some European Union states failed to secure the qualified majority needed for bloc-wide action, with Germany opposed. Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich responded to the British decision by calling for the UK ambassador to be expelled.