The UK and Israel have signed a trade continuity agreement to take effect after Brexit, with the Department for International Trade saying the move would “deliver significant savings and help to safeguard British jobs”.
Liam Fox, the UK’s International Trade Secretary, and Eli Cohen, Israel’s Minister of Economy and Industry, signed the agreement in Jerusalem on Monday.
According to the Department for International Trade, the agreement “allows businesses to trade as freely as they do now, without any additional barriers or tariffs.” The department also noted that the agreement could mean “the British vehicles sector could avoid up to £9 million a year in tariff charges on their exports that would apply if the agreement wasn’t in place, while machinery and mechanical appliance exporters could avoid up to £5 million a year.”
It also said that UK consumers would “continue to benefit from more choice and lower prices on goods imported from Israel, such as pharmaceutical products”. Israeli companies currently act as major suppliers of pharmaceuticals to the NHS; Teva Pharmaceuticals, an Israeli company, is the largest manufacturer of generic medicines in the world.
