The authorities of Israel and India have agreed to resume negotiations on a free trade agreement, interrupted several years ago.
According to Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, who is in Israel at the head of a large business delegation, the parties agreed to divide the agreement into two parts in order to speed up its implementation.
In the first stage, it is planned to reach agreement on the most easily agreed upon issues, such as cooperation in the field of research and development, mutual investments and joint participation in infrastructure projects, so that more sensitive issues are discussed separately in the second stage.
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 (suspended), Mexico, Canada, USA, MERCOSUR bloc (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay), Colombia (suspended), 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.