Israel has just renewed a trade pact with Turkey and is about to sign a long-term agreement with a Far Eastern country for the annual export of $8 million worth of phosphates and phosphoric acid from the Negev, it was reported here today.
The deputy minister for development, Yehuda Shaari, has just returned from an extensive tour of the Far East. He visited Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia and Singapore and reportedly found a good potential market in those countries for Israeli raw materials, chemical fertilizers and semifinished products.
The Japanese were said to be interested in the possibility of laying a pipeline from Sodom on the south shore of the Dead Sea to the port of Elath on the Gulf of Akaba to move minerals in solution. A delegation representing Japan’s chemical industry is due to visit Israel shortly. The agreement with Turkey calls for the sale of $10 million worth of Israeli products in that country and the purchase by Israel of $11 million in Turkish goods. The pact represents a 5 percent increase in trade over the previous agreement between the two countries.
It was reported here today that Israel does not intend to operate the manganese mines in the Sinai peninsula because the high cost of transporting the ore would make it unprofitable under present conditions.
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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.
