On Friday, November 1, the free trade agreement with Vietnam, which was signed about a year ago by Israeli Economy Minister Nir Barkat and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Hon Dien, will officially come into force.
Under this agreement, significant customs benefits will be introduced on goods imported into Israel from Vietnam, such as cars, canned tuna and dried fruits, while Israeli exporters will benefit from reduced customs duties levied by the Vietnamese authorities on dates and plastic imported from Israel. products and medical equipment.
In particular, the 30% duty on dates will be abolished, the duty on concentrates and orange juice, which amounted to 50% of the price, will be gradually reduced until completely abolished within seven years, as well as the 50% duty on Israeli wine. The 15% duty on irrigation equipment, plastic products and medical equipment will be eliminated with immediate effect.
Trade between Israel and Vietnam was worth about $1.3 billion in 2023 and continues to grow despite the war in Israel and problems with maritime supplies.
Israel has one of the world’s most extensive packages of free trade agreements. Currently, Israel has free trade agreements with 45 countries of the world – 27 EU countries, Great Britain, EFTA countries (Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Liechtenstein), Turkey, Mexico, Canada, USA, the MERCOSUR bloc (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay), Colombia, Panama, Ukraine, South Korea, UAE, Guatemala, Vietnam.
Negotiations between Israel and the People’s Republic of China on a free trade agreement, which began in 2016, have reached their final stage. The signing of the agreement was expected before the end of 2023, however, due to the deterioration of relations between the countries in connection with the War of the Iron Swords, the further fate of the negotiations is unclear. The same applies to negotiations on free trade with the EAEU (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia).
Negotiations are underway on free trade with Chile and India. Australian authorities announced the acceleration of negotiations with Israel. The first round of free trade negotiations with Bahrain has been completed. Free trade negotiations with Japan begin. In the spring of 2023, a transition to a new stage of negotiations between Israel and Georgia was announced, and in the summer, the start of negotiations with Moldova.
Israel has agreements with Egypt and Jordan on special industrial zones, goods from which are shipped duty-free to the United States.