A year ago this Friday, Israel, the U.S., and the United Emirates announced the peace agreement known as the Abraham Accords. Zev Stub takes stock of the economic benefits the agreement has brought.
During 2020 and the first six months of 2021, Israel exported $197 million of goods and services to the UAE, and imported about $372 million. Trade could reach $1 billion for the whole of 2021, and could exceed $3 billion within three years, according to the UAE-Israel Business Council.
[These figures don’t] include tourism or investments between the countries. The largest commercial agreement so far between the two countries was Delek Drilling’s sale of its 22-percent share in the offshore Tamar natural-gas field to Abu Dhabi’s Mubdala Petroleum Company for $1.1 billion in April.
Israeli companies are starting to recognize the potential offered by the UAE’s economic ecosystem, said Dorian Barak, an investor and the co-founder of the UAE-Israel Business Council. “Israelis are always looking for ways to do business in South Asia, East Africa, India, and Bangladesh,” Barak said. “These are markets with two billion people, and you can’t work with them from Tel Aviv. The UAE is the place where everyone congregates to do business, and Israel has finally been admitted to that club.”
Read more on Jerusalem Post: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/one-year-into-abraham-accords-israels-trade-with-uae-tops-570m-676181