Extract from Business
and Trade questions: Free Trade Agreement Negotiations:
Israel
(West Bromwich East)
(Con)
4. What recent progress her Department has made on negotiating a
free trade agreement with Israel (901849)
(Harrow East) (Con)
16. What recent progress her Department has made on negotiating a
free trade agreement with Israel (901868)
The Secretary of State for Business and Trade ()
Israel remains a part of the FTA programme, and negotiations
continue. I had a productive meeting with Israel’s Minister of
Economy, Nir Barkat, last week in Abu Dhabi, where we discussed
our existing trading relationship as well as how Israel is managing the
challenges of working on an FTA while fighting a war.
Israel is facing immense challenges in its war with Hamas, but it
is known around the world as a start-up nation thanks to its
extraordinary tech sector, which Brits benefit from every day.
Given the enormous opportunities that a bespoke free trade
agreement with Israel offers to the
UK, will my right hon. Friend update the House on what steps she
is taking to advance negotiations?
My hon. Friend will be pleased to know that we held a virtual
negotiating round with Israel in February,
focused primarily on services. That is one of the things that we
are doing to move the FTA forward, and we will update Parliament
shortly in the usual way via a written ministerial statement.
My hon. Friend is right to highlight Israel’s world-leading tech
sector, which is a reason why we want to modernise and upgrade
our relations with Israel Our current FTA
was signed in 1995—it is a roll-over from the one we had with the
EU—and technical collaboration, which Israel specialises in,
will be made easier through an enhanced FTA.
Mr Speaker
I call . Not here.
(Orkney and Shetland)
(LD)
Can the Secretary of State give me some assurance that any free
trade agreement with Israel will not allow
the importation of goods produced in settlements on the west
bank?
Yes, I can give the right hon. Member that assurance. We are
clear under our existing UK-Israel trade and partnership
agreement that Israeli goods originating from the State
of Israel receive tariff
preferences. We also have a separate interim agreement between
the UK and the Palestinian Authority. I confirm that that will
continue to be the case with an upgraded FTA with Israel We will not
compromise our long-standing positions on the middle east process
throughout this negotiation, including with respect to
settlements.
Topical
Questions
(Buckingham) (Con): Israel is
one of the United Kingdom’s most dynamic trading partners, so
does my right hon. Friend agree that prioritising a free trade
deal with Israel will complement
the good work that the Government are doing to defeat the haters
as part of the Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas
Matters) Bill, and send an unmistakeable message that the UK
stands ready to strengthen our unbreakable friendship
with Israel
: My hon. Friend is right.
Israel’s current relationship with the UK is worth about £6.4
billion, but our FTA is a roll-over of the one that Israel signed in 1995
with the EU. It does not take into account services, digital,
artificial intelligence or genome sequencing. There is a lot that
we can do. That is why we are working on this FTA. It is a
priority for us. As I said earlier, we face many challenges in
carrying on negotiations with a country that is at war, but we
are working to overcome them.
(Strangford) (DUP): I am very encouraged by the
Secretary of State’s comments about the free trade deal with
Israel The UK is a
friend of Israel
and Israel is a friend of
the UK, so what more can we do to increase trade between us? More
importantly—and very regionally —how can the Secretary of State
ensure that Northern Ireland is very much part of that trade
deal, so that companies in Strangford and across Northern Ireland
also feel the benefit?
: The hon. Gentleman will
remember that we had the Northern Ireland investment summit, at
which we talked about bringing more investment into Northern
Ireland. He will know that around 500 Israeli firms operate in
the United Kingdom. That investment from overseas is creating
thousands of jobs in high-value sectors, and a free trade
agreement will help to increase the investment. That will benefit
businesses in Northern Ireland, too.
Extract from Business
Questions
Sir (Northampton North) (Con):
Tomorrow is International Women’s Day, and today marks five
months since the barbaric Hamas attack on Israel
Of the 134 hostages still cruelly held by Hamas, 19 are women,
and of those, five are teenage girls. Will my right hon. Friend
join me in marking International Women’s Day by supporting the
campaign called #BringBackOurGirls? Will she also take this
opportunity to send a message to their families, who are enduring
unimaginable pain and the living nightmare of these young women
being in the hands of vicious rapist terrorists?
The Leader of the House of Commons (): I thank my right hon. and
learned Friend for affording the whole House the opportunity to
send the message to all the hostage families that they are still
very much in our thoughts. Of those women and girls still kept
hostage, the youngest is 19 and the oldest is 70. We can only
imagine the horrors they are facing. This week the UN published
its report on the sexual violence suffered by Israeli women and
girls on 7 October. It looked at over 5,000 photographs and over
50 hours of footage of those attacks, and it concluded that there
was evidence at the Nova music festival of rape, gang rape and
murder. It is the most appalling situation, and I am glad that
the UN now has that evidence on record and has produced that
report. We cannot let these poor women and girls suffer what they
must be suffering a moment longer. We must bring them home, and I
am sure that is the sentiment of everyone in the House.
