The Minister of Economy and Industry, Maj. Gen. Orna Barbibai, and the United States Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, Dr. Thani al-Zayudi, have announced the conclusion of negotiations for a comprehensive free trade area agreement between the two countries.
In September 2020, the Avraham Agreements were signed, which established diplomatic relations between the State of Israel and the United Arab Emirates. About a year later, in November 2021, negotiations on a free trade agreement between the parties began. Last week, 01 April 2022, to end.
The issue was discussed at a meeting between Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and heir apparent Sheikh Muhammad bin Zayed in Abu Dhabi last December, where it was agreed to speed up the signing talks, as well as at their meeting in Egypt last week.
This is a full and first free trade agreement with an Arab country, which takes place so soon after the establishment of diplomatic relations. The negotiations lasted five months and included four rounds of negotiations and hard work to complete the negotiations as quickly as possible.
The Israeli side negotiated Ohad Cohen, head of the Foreign Trade Administration at the Ministry of Economy and Industry, and the negotiating team included representatives from the Ministry of Economy and Industry, the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Customs Administration, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice. Includes, inter alia, issues relating to trade in goods including regulation and regulation, customs, trade in services, co-operation, government procurement, e-commerce and protection of intellectual property rights.
Relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates have great economic potential in a variety of areas, including the geographical and cultural proximity of the nations and the unique characteristics of the United Arab Emirates, which is the second largest economy in the Arab world (after Saudi Arabia) and a multi-billion dollar import market Advanced technology and solutions in which Israel has a relative advantage.
Since the establishment of the Abrahamic Agreements, trade between the United Arab Emirates and Israel has increased significantly and in 2021 reached a volume of about $ 900 million. The potential for economic trade between the two economies is much greater and extends across many areas, including exporting solutions in the fields of energy, digital health and medical equipment, water (desalination / purification / savings and smart management), agricultural solutions, cyber solutions, technologies in the field of pin-tech and diamond exports.
Key benefits of the agreement: The scope of mutual benefits on products agreed between the parties covers more than 95% of the tariffs of both parties and includes, among other things, tariff reductions on almost all industrial products, as well as benefits in food and agriculture products.
The agreement also promotes the field of trade in services between the countries, by ensuring regulatory certainty in areas such as e-commerce, professional and business services, distribution services (wholesale and retail), computing and more.
Now, at the end of the negotiations, the agreement will be subject to legal editing, and will then be signed by the ministers and undergo a process of ratification in each of the countries. At the end, the agreement will enter into force, The great economic nature of the ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.