Israel and the United Arab Emirates signed a free trade agreement this Tuesday (31) reinforcing the normalization of their diplomatic relations established in 2020; this is the first treaty that the Hebrew state has signed with an Arab country.
Congratulating Israel’s Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates Amir Hayek in an Arabic message on Twitter, “Congratulations”, with a photo showing the officials of the two countries during the signing ceremony of the agreement in Dubai.
Negotiations for the deal began in November and ended in April after four rounds of negotiations.
On April 1, Israel described the agreement between the parties to remove import duties on “96% of products” traded as “historic”. According to official Israeli data, trade between the two countries reached $900 million in 2021.
The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain normalized relations with Israel in 2020 as part of a series of negotiated agreements brokered by the United States.
Morocco has done the same, and Sudan has agreed to normalize relations with Israel, but the deal is yet to be concluded.
Israel hosted a diplomatic meeting with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and the United States during the regional tour of the head of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken, in March.
source: Noticias
