Ministry of Industry & Trade: progress made on free-trade agreement with the Mercosur trade bloc

A statement issued last week by Israel's Ministry of Trade & Industry indicated that Israel and the Mercosur countries (Mercado Comun del Sur, the Common Market of the South, comprising Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay) had made progress in negotiations for the establishment of a free-trade agreement
 
Mercosur is the largest trade bloc in Latin America. Mercosur operates as a roof organization, under which the four member countries have maintained joint foreign economic relations for 15 years. Israel is in fact holding parallel negotiations with the four countries.
 
Brazil is now taking over the presidency of Mercosur from Argentina, and Israel hopes that the momentum of trade negotiations will be as rapid as before.
 
The Israeli delegation included officials from the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, Ministry of Agriculture, and Customs Authority.
 
The statement said that Israeli and Mercosur representatives had held intensive discussions in Buenos Aires, the week before last and made relatively good progress.
 
Following the completion of the last round of talks, Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor foreign trade administration director Boaz Hirsch said that, “These are important trade negotiations with a bloc of countries, to which Israeli industry strongly wants to export.
 
We see the potential for expanding exports to these countries after this agreement is signed.”
He said that the present round of talks mainly dealt with reducing customs duties on industrial and agricultural products, after the parties exchanged proposals on mutual reduction and elimination of customs.
 
He added that "MERCOSUR countries will benefit from Israel’s sophisticated technology, and Israel will be able to introduce its goods to a market of hundreds of millions people.”
 
Hirsch noted however that Customs duties in the Mercosur bloc are fairly high, and gradual reduction will give Israeli exports a significant advantage.
 
He added that the goal is to try to reach an agreement by the year-end.