Jerusalem (AFP)
A free trade agreement was concluded Wednesday in Jerusalem between Israel and South Korea, according to the Israeli Ministry of Economy.
This agreement stipulates that Israeli exports to South Korea will be exempt from customs duties and that customs duties will be reduced on South Korean products imported into Israel.
The products involved range from cars to medical equipment to lipstick and video games.
The agreement described as "historic" by the Israeli Minister of Economy, Eli Cohen, is the result of three years of negotiations between the two countries, but the date of effective signature has not been announced.
"This is the first agreement of its kind signed between Israel and a country in eastern Asia, itself one of the world's economic leaders," Cohen said.
South Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee, who was attending the bargaining ceremony, hoped that "Israeli companies will take full advantage of Korea to penetrate the vast Asian market".
"We are two small countries without many natural resources and surrounded by countries offering us continuous challenges but we have overcome the difficulties," she said.
A controversy arose around the signing of the agreement, the Israeli ministry having agreed not to mention Israeli companies located in the occupied West Bank, the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, territories not recognized as Israeli by the international community.
"The agreement concerns the State of Israel and is similar to that signed with the European Union," said AFP Mr. Cohen.
Zvi Hauser, a member of the opposition Blue-White party, wrote a letter to the government's legal adviser, Avichai Mandelblit, asking him to ban the signing of the agreement, which "puts Israelis whose companies are located in areas under Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem and the Golan ".
In a letter to the council of Yesha, an organization representing settlers in the West Bank, Cohen says there is no mention of "territorial differences" in the agreement, but that if Korea does not offer financial benefits to the Golan and West Bank industrialists, Israel will pay compensation to the exporters.
"A company that will not benefit from these benefits will receive compensation from the state and ultimately everyone will benefit from this agreement," the minister told AFP.
In 2018, trade between Israel and South Korea amounted to about $ 2.5 billion, an increase of nearly 15% from 2017, according to the Ministry of Economy.
In 2018, Israel broke an export record for a total of $ 110 billion, according to the Israeli Ministry of Economy.
© 2019 AFP