The agreement will take effect within a few months.
Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Eli Ben-Menahem is scheduled to sign a free trade agreement between Israel and Bulgaria this evening.
The free trade agreement between Israel and Bulgaria will lead to the gradual cancellation of discrimination against Israeli goods, compared with Western European products. At present, a high 20% customs rate is imposed on Israeli goods, whereas almost no customs duties are levied on European goods.
The agreement will take effect within a few months, and both countries will begin canceling customs on many of each other's products.
According to Ben-Menachem, the agreement will improve Israel's ability to export a variety of goods to Bulgaria, including chemicals, agricultural equipment and inputs, and electrical equipment.
The free trade agreement with Bulgaria is the latest in a series of such agreements with Central European countries. The Ministry of Industry and Trade hopes that the agreements will solve the problem of certificate of origin, enabling Israeli products from the territories to be exported to Western and Central Europe without customs duties being levied on them.
>Published by Israel's Business Arena on 6 June, 2001