Israel, with a high rate of industrial development and a continued substantial trade with the United States, “offers attractive opportunities for a further expansion of United States trade and investment, ” the United States Department of Commerce said today.
The Department emphasized, in its weekly publication, “Foreign Commerce,” that the effect of the recent devaluation of the Israel pound and other monetary reforms on future trade with the United States “will largely hinge on measures to be taken by that country to combat inflation, ” The monetary reforms cited were the unification of Israel’s ‘hitherto complicated multiple rate of exchange systems” and the abolition or reduction of import duties on raw materials and capital equipment.
The Department reported that the United States maintained its role in 1961 as Israel’s leading supplier, with exports valued at $146, 000, 000, a 16,1 percent increase over 1960. This record level of exports, the report said, was largely the result of increased sales of electrical machinery, industrial machinery, new passenger cars and chassis, tractors, parts and accessories, and rubber products.
The report said trade had been “particularly stimulated by a $27, 500, 000 loan for improvements of the Ashdod and Eilat ports, and by a $10, 000, 000 loan to finance imports of capital goods and services from the United States. “Attractive opportunities for United States trade and investment are expected to continue in the chemical, electronics, metal, machinery and automotive industries,” the department reported.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
