The government of Israel Investment Authority in the United States announced here yesterday that as a result of Israel’s trade agreement with the European Economic Community (EEC), which goes into effect Friday, the world’s largest duty-free market will open up to U.S. manufacturers. Israeli officials said that Israel can provide access to American manufacturers to the EEC duty-free market because she is the only country in the world to have duty-free agreements with both the United States and the EEC.
Since Jan. I, Israel has enjoyed eligibility for the U.S. Generalized System of Preference, which allows tariff-free access to the U.S. for over 2700 Israel-made product categories. Beginning Friday, all duties on Israel-made products entering the EEC market will be eliminated.
“The implication of this to American manufacturers is considerable,” the Israel Investment Authority said in a statement distributed at a press conference at the American Jewish Committee headquarters. “U.S. companies will be able to significantly expand their activities in the 270,000,000-person Common Market, and do so on a much more competitive basis than is now possible. All they need do is manufacture their goods from export to the Common Market in Israel,” the Investment Authority said.
Hanan Bar On, Minister at the Embassy of Israel in Washington, told the press conference that Israel expects that with the Common Market agreement becoming effective, many American companies will seize the opportunity to expand their markets by opening manufacturing facilities in Israel. The Investment Authority statement also noted that the U.S. currently exports a wide variety of products to the EEC totalling up to $25 billion a year.
According to the Investment Authority, the combination of duty-free access to the EEC and the United States would be especially attractive to companies in chemicals, pharmaceuticals, plastics, textiles, metals, machinery, electric goods and instruments.
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