2023-11-02 09:27:36
$11.5 billion is the volume of trade between Israel and Middle Eastern countries, according to data Bank of IsraelThis number is at stake due to the war raging in Gaza since the seventh of last October. But this number represents only the tip of the iceberg, and the largest part of the trade exchange between Israel and its neighbors is much larger.
Many of the elements of this trade exchange are not guaranteed, such as gas, tourism, and technological cooperation, and are calculated in the final calculation of each item. The true size appears unclear from behind a curtain due to the complexity of the Palestinian issue and the decline of the peace plan between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, which has witnessed little progress towards the two-state solution. In the mid-nineties, commercial representation offices spread to Arab countries without entering into a peace agreement with Israel, such as Qatar, Tunisia, and Morocco.
Washington, which is the mediator who is geographically distant but actually closest in terms of the strength of its influence in the Middle East, has had a permanent role in pushing for trade and economic normalization between Israel and its neighbors as a first step – from its point of view – towards comprehensive normalization and perhaps putting an end to the conflict in the region.
In numbers, Turkey is Israel’s first economic partner in the Middle East, with a trade exchange volume between the two countries amounting to $7.7 billion in 2022, and the trade balance leans toward the Turkish side, as Israel’s imports reached $5.7 billion, and Turkey’s imports of Israeli products amounted to regarding $2.2 billion. Most of it is fuel and distillation products, while Israel imports metals and some compounds.
The United Arab Emirates ranks second among Israel’s trading partners in the region, and the volume of trade exchange reached $2.56 billion in 2022. The two countries entered into a free trade agreement in April of this year, and trade is likely to rise to higher levels thanks to the new agreement.
The volume of trade between the UAE and Israel is expected to reach $3 billion at the end of this year, and the UAE is likely to become the owner of the largest trade exchange with Israel, occupying first place instead of Turkey within a few years.
Jordan comes in third place with a volume of trade exchange that reached $536 million, and gas, electricity and water constitute the most important goods exchanged with Israel. Jordan receives 50 million cubic meters of water from Israel in a subsidized manner thanks to the peace agreements that Jordan concluded with Israel during the reign of the late King Hussein. Bin Talal, and the agreement was updated to include fifty million cubic meters of subsidized water for a period of three years ending at the end of this year.
As for Egypt, which was the first Arab country to sign a peace agreement with the Hebrew state in 1979 during the rule of the late President Anwar Sadat, it ranks fourth among Israel’s partners in the region, as the volume of trade exchange between the two countries reached regarding 300 million dollars, and its balance also tilts in favor of Egypt, but This number does not include Israeli tourism in Egypt and does not include Israeli gas that Egypt buys from Israel to liquefy it in the Damietta and Idku factories in the northern Nile Delta.
But Egypt benefits from the Qualified Industrial Zones Agreement, or QIZ, that was concluded during the rule of former President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak. The agreement allowed Egypt to export $1.4 billion worth to the United States in 2022, according to an Egyptian government source.
Today, the scene appears ambiguous with the increasing pace of the war on Gaza, as trade exchange amounting to more than $11.5 billion stands on the brink of the Gaza war.
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