Brexit bonanza! UK-Israel deal on horizon as Britain eyes-up ‘world-class’ partnership

Anne-Marie Trevelyan, international trade secretary, said an advanced free trade deal with Isreal is an opportunity only made possible post-Brexit, and will “create thousands of high-skilled, well-paid jobs” all over the country.

James Clarke, the chief negotiator for the UK-Israel free trade agreement called the deal “hugely exciting”, and said it has the “potential to unlock significant growth” in trade and investment between the two countries.

UK and Israel negotiations have been ongoing for some time after the deal was signed in 2019 and took effect at the beginning of 2021.

The UK is already Israel’s third-biggest trading partner with £2.7 billion of British exports heading to Israel last year.

Around 500 Israeli firms also currently operate in the UK.

But currently, the UK-Israel agreement – which was in place while the UK was still part of the European Union – has very few service provisions.

Services make up a high percentage – around 70 percent – of both countries’ total economic output. Yet it only counts for around 35 percent of bilateral trade in the current agreement.

This is because the trade agreement inherited by the EU focused primarily on trade and little on the country’s service sector.

Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said she is now focused on correcting “this imbalance” and plans to “secure an ambitious new agreement that plays to our strengths as two innovative, tech-driven nations”.

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Lead negotiator James Clarke said this provides “huge opportunities to turbo-charge services trade” between the two countries.

In her blog, Ms Trevelyan wrote: “A deal with Israel is expected to open new opportunities across the services sector from digital, financial and professional services, to life sciences, advanced manufacturing, and high-tech innovation”.

She met with her Israeli counterpart Orna Barbivai last week to discuss the new planned agreement.

She spoke of the meeting in her blog, writing: “Our talks reflected our shared ambition as innovation nations and science superpowers, and illustrated the ways that we can complement each other”.

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The UK-Israel Innovation Summit in spring, which will be held in the UK, is set to provide a platform for businesses from both countries to showcase shared talents.

Ms Trevelyan said: “The Innovation Summit will follow in the footsteps of our Global Investment Summit last year where we brought in £9.7 billion in investment, creating 30,000 jobs”.

The next step of the trade deal is to consult the UK public and businesses to get an idea of what they would like included in the agreement.

The government’s “Call for Input” allows UK business owners and organisations to submit their thoughts via a Gov.uk consultation form until March 30.