Abu Dhabi, (Business News Report)|| Israeli media has announced that the UAE and Israel have completed a free trade agreement to be formally signed within days.
In a statement, the Israeli Ministry of Economy described the agreement reached as “comprehensive and important.”
The ministry also confirmed that the free trade agreement includes regulations, customs, services, government procurement and e-commerce.
For his part, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi said, in a tweet on Twitter: “The new deal paves the way for our business communities to start a new era of collaboration in priority sectors such as agri-tech, med-tech, new energy solutions and advanced technology.”
Last Tuesday, Al-Zeyoudi revealed that free trade negotiations between the two sides had ended before the end of this week.
He stressed that the UAE will be a country of steady growth for Israeli companies during the coming period, noting that the volume of trade exchange between them recently witnessed a jump, reaching $1.2 billion within 14 months, after the announcement of the normalization of relations between the two sides in 2020.
According to Israel Radio’s Arab affairs correspondent, Roi Case, Israeli Economy Minister Orna Barbibay led the negotiations, accompanied by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.
Last February, the Hebrew newspaper Globes revealed that Abu Dhabi would invest $10 billion in Israeli companies, while the UAE announced the establishment of a huge investment fund for this purpose.
Finally, the Israeli President, Isaac Herzog, and Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, visited Abu Dhabi, and Herzog announced that the volume of Tel Aviv’s trade with Abu Dhabi amounts to more than one billion dollars, and that the coming period will witness a jump in this number.
A few days ago, the UAE ambassador to Israel, Mohammed Al Khaja, said that the two countries are looking forward to concluding a comprehensive economic partnership agreement before the end of March 2022.
In addition, Reuters reported, on Friday, that a unit of the Emirati Mubadala company obtained a loan of about $720 million, to complete a deal to acquire a stake in the Israeli Tamar gas field.
Emirati-Israeli relations have witnessed significant growth since the normalization of relations between them nearly two years ago.
