Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is going to Washington to meet US President Donald Trump. Netanyahu's office said the meeting will discuss customs duties, the situation in Gaza and the Iranian threat.
According to an official of the White House, the meeting will be held on Monday. As there are some complicated issues between the US and Israel, it is said that the meeting will focus on all three issues. According to the media, the meeting between Netanyahu and Trump will discuss customs duties on Israeli goods, efforts to return Israeli hostages from Gaza, Israel-Turkey relations, the threat of Iran and the fight with the International Criminal Court (ICC). Netanyahu will be the first foreign leader to reach Washington to discuss the tariffs directly with Trump. The ICC has already issued an arrest warrant against Netanyahu on charges of waging war in Gaza last November.
After Trump increased customs duties for most countries in the world, Israel also decided to remove the remaining 1 percent of customs duties on goods coming from America. However, due to Trump's imposition of 17 percent tariff, there has been a loss in US-Israeli trade .
A day before Trump announced tariffs on most countries around the world, Israel attempted to remove all remaining tariffs on American goods. But Trump imposed tariffs .
America is Israel's biggest ally and major trading partner . The two countries signed a free trade agreement 40 years ago, according to which 98 percent of goods coming from the US are now tax-free.
According to the Israeli Ministry of Finance, this new decision by Trump may affect the export of Israeli machinery and medical equipment. Trump's 10 percent "baseline" customs duty, which has already been implemented, has already had an impact on US ports, airports and customs warehouses.
Competitive customs duty ranging from 11 percent to 50 percent is coming into effect from Wednesday. Goods from the European Union will face a 20 percent tariff and those from China will face a 34 percent tariff, bringing the total tariff on China to 54 percent.
The world market has been shaken by this change and the value of the US "S&P 500" companies has fallen by 5 trillion dollars in two days. This is the biggest drop ever.
