Israel’s government has said it will cancel all remaining tariffs on American imports, in an apparent bid to ensure that it is exempt from a new wave of levies that President Trump is set to announce on Wednesday.
Israel and the United States, two close allies, have had a free-trade agreement since 1985 that excludes most American products from Israeli tariffs. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel presented the decision to remove all remaining tariffs as a move toward greater trade liberalization.
“Today we canceled all of the customs duties levied on products from the U.S., Israel’s largest trading partner,” Mr. Netanyahu said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “Canceling the customs duties on American goods is an additional step in the policy that my governments have led for a decade in opening up the market to competition.”
The measure needs approval from the finance committee in the country’s Parliament, or Knesset, but is expected to pass, according to Israeli media.
Total U.S. trade with Israel amounted to an estimated $37 billion in 2024, and the U.S. bilateral deficit stood at $7.4 billion, an 8.6 percent increase over the previous year, according to U.S. trade data. Israeli import taxes on U.S. goods amount to $11.3 million annually, with most levied on food, according to Israel’s finance ministry.
Mr. Trump has already imposed several major tranches of tariffs, including ones that apply broadly to imports from China, Canada and Mexico. He has also announced tariffs on imported cars and car parts, which are set to go into effect on Thursday.
The Trump administration has given few details about which countries and sectors will be included in the tariffs announcement on Wednesday, and it was not clear whether the levies would affect Israel.
Israel was the latest country to adopt measures that appear designed to forestall the imposition of any American levies. In one example, Mexico has sent accused cartel leaders to the United States to face criminal charges and dispatched troops to fentanyl laboratories and the U.S. border.
Mr. Trump has said that the latest tariffs will be imposed on adversaries like China as well as on countries that have traditionally been considered allies of the United States.
The Trump administration argues that the tariffs will rebalance global trade in America’s favor, prevent other nations from taking advantage of the country’s largesse, promote domestic industry by making it cheaper for companies to base factories in the United States and raise revenue for the U.S. treasury.
In response, the leaders of some of America’s largest trading partners have adopted various approaches. Canada, the European Union and China have imposed retaliatory tariffs in response to sweeping levies previously announced by the Trump administration.
