BICOM

International Trade Secretary Dr Liam Fox MP met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday to discuss ways to increase bilateral trade after Brexit.

The Trade Secretary welcomed Israeli cooperation in ensuring that trade agreements are rolled over and noted the significant progress that has been made in this regard. He said: “I am looking forward to an enhanced and even more ambitious trade and investment relationship with Israel as we work closer together going forward into the future.”

He added: ” As we leave the European Union and Britain takes up its place as an independent state of the WTO [World Trade Organization] we want to push our concept of free trade even further in a world where the sobering calls of protectionism is rising. Two free trade nations like ours need to make the case for global free trade because trade spreads prosperity.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu said he will work to “continue to expand our mutual trade under all conditions. I leave those conditions to you. But I think that there is a clear trajectory of increase in balanced trade between the two of us.”

He added: “We each get the benefits and it’s growing and growing and growing. Britain is in fact our largest trade partner in Europe, one of our most important trading partners in the world. We value the friendship. We value the prospects for the future.” In 2017 bilateral trade reached £7bn, an increase of 25 per cent since 2016, and Israeli investment in the UK increased by 97 per cent.

Dr Fox also visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum to lay a wreath, as well as the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation and Israeli tech firms. Fox also met with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in Ramallah on Tuesday.

The UK Government says Israel is a priority market for post-Brexit Britain because of the potential synergies between Israel’s high levels of innovation and British strengths in design, business growth and finance, as well as the UK’s own high technology and scientific strengths.