Less than two years after sealing the normalization of their diplomatic relations, Israel and the United Arab Emirates signed, on Tuesday May 31, a free trade agreement supposed to frame their ambitious economic rapprochement. This agreement still needs to be confirmed by the Israeli parliament and government, a process that could take at least two weeks. It must allow, within five years, the lifting of customs tariffs on 96% of the goods exchanged by the two countries.
In September 2020, the Emirates had been, on the Arab side, the driving force of the so-called “Abraham” agreements, which allowed the normalization of relations between the Jewish state with Bahrain then Morocco, and more confusedly with Sudan. , after the fall of dictator Omar Al-Bashir in April 2019. Under the leadership of the Trump administration in Washington, these rapprochements were sealed without a glance for the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967, to the chagrin of Ramallah.
A sign of Abu Dhabi’s voluntarism, trade between the two States, excluding petroleum products, exceeded 2.3 billion euros between this date and March 2022, approaching one billion euros during the first three months of the year. This progression clearly distinguishes this relationship forged by two States that have never been at war from the “cold peaces” concluded by Israel with Egypt in 1979 (174 million euros in exchanges in 2021) and Jordan in 1994 ( €334 million). The agreement could make it possible to raise these exchanges to 10 billion dollars in five years, estimates the Emirati party, which expects developments in energy, the environment and e-commerce.
No strategic formalization
The deal also covers hotels, financial services, distribution and construction. It is the second of this type signed by Abu Dhabi, after a similar precedent concluded with India in February. Israel, for its part, points to health and medical equipment, food, plastic goods and fertilizers, hoping to expand its trade in the Emirates beyond the diamond market – which currently accounts for more than half. Concerned about the protection of intellectual property rights, in a country eager for technology transfers, the agreement maintains a long-term ambition for the Jewish state.
The rapprochement between the Jewish state and the Gulf autocracy feeds on their shared hostility to Iran and the slow disengagement of their American ally
He hopes to set up Israeli production in the Emirates and export from Dubai, the international hub where this agreement was announced, to markets in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, where national companies are struggling to gain a foothold. These negotiations began at the end of 2021, when Prime Minister Naftali Bennett visited the Emirates. Formally, this long-awaited visit had given rise to no substantial announcement. Israel intended to warn its partner, who was leading diplomatic efforts in Iran, the great common regional enemy, during the drawn-out negotiations aimed at reviving the international Iranian nuclear agreement of 2015.
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