Israel in Talks on Free Trade Deals with India and China

(IDEX Online News) – Israel is negotiating Free Trade Agreements with India and China, two important diamond and jewelry manufacturing and retail centers.

Eli Belotsercovsky, Director of Economic Relations with India in the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to give a timeframe in which the negotiations, which have been taking place for more than a year, would conclude, according to The Hindu newspaper.

Israel’s annual bilateral trade with China is about $8 billion, and with India amounts $5 billion with India. Diamonds account for about 30-40 percent of the two-way trade between Israel and India, with most of the rest being high-tech products.

The move fits in with the direction of the Israeli diamond industry which has increasingly looked to eastern markets in recent years following the global financial crisis in 2008 and the slowdown in US and European markets.