UK and Israel flags > UK in Israel, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The UK’s latest figures on bilateral trade between the UK and Israel have shown a major increase in business between the two countries in recent months, growing by 33 percent.
A Department for International Trade and Investment report, released last week, reveals how British exports to Israel are now roughly equal to imports from the Jewish state.
Imports themselves have increased by almost 60 percent to more than £3 billion annually.
Total trade in goods and services between Britain and Israel amounted to £6.1 billion in the year to June 2022, an increase of more than a third or £1.5 billion since June 2021.
Meanwhile, British exports to Israel had increased by nearly 14 percent, topping £3 billion in the year to June 2022.
Most significantly. UK imports from Israel in the year to August 2022 grew by almost 90 percent.
The vast majority of this growth in imports was in medicinal and pharmaceutical products, totalling £845 million and influenced by the coronavirus pandemic.
As the UK negotiates a free trade agreement with Israel, Labour has made clear its support for growing UK-Israel trade.
Speaking in January, shadow International Trade Minister Ruth Cadbury celebrated trade between the two countries, laid out Labour’s opposition to the BDS movement, and pushed the government to encourage greater tech collaboration between London and Jerusalem.
