ST. JOHN'S LAW REVIEW
VOLUME 67 SPRING 1993 NUMBER 2
ARTICLES
IMPROVING ARBITRATION UNDER THE
U.S.-ISRAEL FREE TRADE AGREEMENT:
A FRAMEWORK FOR A MIDDLE-EAST
FREE TRADE ZONE
AVRAHAM AZRIELI*

* Associate, Davis Polk & Wardwell, New York; LL.B. Bar-lan University, Israel, 1988;
LL.M. Columbia University, 1990. The views expressed in this article are exclusively the
author's.
ST. JOHN'S LAW REVIEW
[Vol. 67:187
[...]

VI. CONCLUSION
The above discussion has examined each element of the dis-
pute resolution process under the U.S.-Israel FTA. The analysis
clearly shows a substantial need to amend the Agreement and mas-
sively supplement it in almost every aspect. As Judge Lauterpacht
wrote, "most so-called conflicts of interests are due, not to eco-
nomic necessities, but to the imperfections of international legal
organization, in particular to the legal admissibility of force and
the absence of judicial settlement."'
429 The availability of a bind-
ing and effective dispute resolution mechanism is essential to the
success of an international agreement. In the case of the U.S.-
Israel FTA, more than its own success is at stake. The U.S.-Israel
FTA is the only free trade agreement signed by Israel until now
and hence constitutes the only available precedent for a free trade
zone encompassing Israel. Should the ongoing Middle East peace
talks produce the desired results, economic arrangements would
have to follow. In a region so engulfed by nationalism, free trade
would be the only acceptable compromise between a necessary eco-
nomic union and powerful nationalist sentiments.
It is essential that any future Middle East trade agreements
be equipped with a competent dispute resolution process to suc-
cessfully defuse disputes before certain escalation into bloodshed.
It is hoped that the suggestions made in this Article will serve in
the formation of such institutions.