Report: Israel will consider revisions to economic agreements with Palestinians

Citing “Palestinian, international, and Israeli sources”, Israeli news site Globes has reported that the Israeli government “has agreed in principle to a request by the Palestinian Authority (PA) to reconsider the Paris economic agreements signed by the PA and Israel in 1994”.

The report claims that the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office has approved the PA’s request “in principle”, agreeing “to hold talks in a number of professional committees in various areas, apparently including international partners”.

One Palestinian source told Globes “that French President Emmanuel Macron agreed to help by hosting these talks, as was the case when the economic discussions were held and the economic agreements signed in 1994.”

In July 2012, then-Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz signed a revision of the agreement with then-PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, Globes noted.

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“This revision was mainly technical, dealing with the transfer of information between Israeli tax and supervisory authorities and the PA in order to prevent tax evasion and illegal circumventions.”

Substantial changes now sought by the Palestinians “include elimination, or at least reduction, of the commission charged by Israel on collection of taxes and customs duties for the PA”, and “full independence in setting the amount and character of taxes”.

Other changes are the “removal of barriers and restrictions on the passage of Palestinian goods and agricultural products into Israel, and the removal of all barriers to trade by the PA with other countries, mainly Jordan and the Persian Gulf states.”

According to Globes, Mohsen Abu Ramadan, an economic adviser to Abbas, “made it clear that the main demand will be an end to the Israeli practice of illegally deducting tens of millions of shekels from Palestinian tax money in violation of the agreements.”

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