Israel yesterday signed a free-trade agreement with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), its first big trade accord with an Arab state that reduces or removes tariffs and over time targets lifting annual bilateral trade to more than US$10 billion.
The pact was signed in Dubai by Israeli Minister of Economy and Industry Orna Barbivai and UAE Minister of Economy Abdulla bin Touq al-Marri, after months of negotiations.
Tariffs are to be eliminated on 96 percent of goods with the UAE, predicting the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement would boost bilateral trade to more than US$10 billion a year within five years.
Photo: Reuters
Emirati Minister for Foreign Trade Thani al-Zeyoudi said the trade deal wrote “a new chapter in the history of the Middle East.”
“Our agreement will accelerate growth, create jobs and lead to a new era of peace, stability, and prosperity across the region,” he wrote on Twitter.
Dorian Barak, president of the UAE-Israel Business Council, said the trade agreement defined tax rates, imports and intellectual property, which would encourage more Israeli companies to set up offices in the UAE, particularly in Dubai.
The council predicts there would be almost 1,000 Israeli companies working in or through the UAE by the end of the year doing business with South and East Asia, and Middle East.
“The domestic market doesn’t represent the entirety of the opportunity. The opportunity is really setting up in Dubai, as many companies have, in order to target the broader region,” Barak told Reuters by telephone.
Emirati-Israeli trade reached US$1.2 billion last year, according to official Israeli data.
Ahead of the signing, Israel’s economy ministry had said the accord would remove tariffs on food, agriculture, cosmetics, medical equipment and medicine.
“Together we will remove barriers and promote comprehensive trade and new technologies, which will form a solid foundation for our common path, will contribute to the well-being of citizens and make it easier to do business,” Barbivai said on Monday.
Israel and the UAE established ties in September 2020 in a US-brokered deal that broke with decades of Arab policy that had called for a Palestinian state before ties with Israel.
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