The French financial daily, Les Echos, reported today that the balance of trade between France and Israel last year widened greatly to Israel’s disfavor, France exporting almost nine times as much as it bought from Israel.
The daily newspaper also reported that while France increased its exports to Israel by 70 percent while keeping its purchases at the level of six years ago, neither private nor Government-controlled French firms have made any serious investments in Israel or shared industrial patents or technical know-how with Israeli firms.
France exported to Israel 400,000,000 francs ($80,000,000) worth of merchandise in 1964. This figure does not include military sales. The largest single French export item consisted of ships totaling 143,000,000 francs in value ($28,000,000). During the past few years, Israel has placed orders with French shipyards totaling 250,000,000 firms were passing through a crisis. Other important French exports consisted of mechanical equipment, iron and steel, electrical and electronic gear, chemical products and measurement instruments.
While French exports have soared during the past year–partly for political reasons, according to some experts–France has continued to import from Israel about the same amount as six years ago totaling 50,000,000 francs ($10,000,000). Most of Israeli exports consist of citrus, bananas, avocados and industrial diamonds.
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