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PRESS RELEASE: PRESS/TPRB/258
1 and 3 February 2006

TRADE POLICY REVIEW: ISRAEL

Shift to high-tech contributed to increases in exports and economic growth

The recovery of Israel’s economy from the early 2000’s recession has been mostly led by exports, in particular by innovation and a shift to high-technology goods and services, according to a WTO Secretariat report on the trade policies and practices of Israel.

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The report notes the high level of protection still in place for agriculture. It stresses that continued structural and trade reforms, including further privatizations, MFN tariff reductions (on agricultural goods in particular) and reduction in the gap between bound and applied tariff rates, would enhance predictability and transparency of the trade regime; further reforms of import duties would enhance adherence by Israel to its WTO commitments.

The report also highlights Israel’s unilateral lifting of its general prohibition on imports from WTO Members that have no diplomatic relations with it or prohibit imports from Israel, a move that the authorities hope will be appreciated and reciprocated.

The WTO report, along with a policy statement by the Government, will be the basis for the Trade Policy Review (TPR) by the Trade Policy Review Body of the WTO.

The following documents are available in MS Word format.

• Secretariat report
  > Contents and summary observations (10 pages, 97KB)
  > Economic environment (10 pages, 258KB)
  > Trade and investment regimes (11 pages, 167KB)
  > Trade policies and practices by measure (38 pages, 669KB)
  > Trade policies by sector (35 pages, 609KB)
  > Appendix tables (35 pages, 1803KB)
    
• Government report (16 pages, 111KB)
    
• Revisions of the above documents may be issued approximately 2 weeks after the meeting.
    
• Chairperson's concluding remarks
    
• Minutes of the meeting are available approximately 6 weeks after the meeting.
    
• Questions and answers by WTO Members are available approximately 6 weeks after the meeting.
    

Note  back to top

Trade Policy Reviews are an exercise, mandated in the WTO agreements, in which member countries’ trade and related policies are examined and evaluated at regular intervals. Significant developments that may have an impact on the global trading system are also monitored. For each review, two documents are prepared: a policy statement by the government of the member under review, and a detailed report written independently by the WTO Secretariat. These two documents are then discussed by the WTO’s full membership in the Trade Policy Review Body (TPRB). These documents and the proceedings of the TPRB’s meetings are published shortly afterwards.

Print copies of previous TPR publications are available for sale from the WTO Secretariat, Centre William Rappard, 154 rue de Lausanne, 1211 Genève 21 and through the on-line bookshop.

The TPR publications are also available from our co-publisher Bernan Press, 4611-F Assembly Drive, Lanham, MD 20706-4391, United States.

Schedule of forthcoming reviews  back to top

Angola: 14 and 16 February 2006
Djibouti: 27 February and 1 March 2006
United States: 13 and 15 March 2006