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Tunisia denies commercial exchanges with Israel

August 25, 2022 at 4:17 pm

Palestine Demo in Tunisia

The Tunisian Ministry of Trade and Export Development denied the existence of reports of trade between Tunisia and the Israeli occupation, stressing Tunisia’s commitment to the provisions and principles of the Arab boycott within the framework of the relevant conventions at the level of the League of Arab States.

The Ministry confirmed, in a statement, that the non-application of the GATT Agreement concerning the Israeli occupation, in accordance with the provisions of Article 35 of this Agreement, has been confirmed since the accession of our country in 1990.

The Ministry of Trade and Export Development indicated that it was working in coordination with the relevant bodies to consolidate the commitments of Tunisia at the regional and international levels on this matter.

The Ministry explained that it “exchanges information and notifications with all bodies concerning goods coming from the Zionist entity or foreign goods that have inputs from the afore-mentioned entity that could leak onto the Tunisian market”, according to the statement.

The Ministry also stressed that “dealing with foreign companies and means of transport that are proven to violate the principles and provisions of the Arab boycott of the Zionist entity is prohibited by a decision of the Council of the League of Arab States at the ministerial level.”

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The Tunisian Ministry also stressed that “products of Tunisian origin are exported to various countries of the world within the mechanisms and modalities of international trade, which are acquired by purchasing centres and international trading companies that do not reside in Tunisian territory. They are subsequently, fully or partially, re-exported to other countries, including the Zionist entity.”

The statement added: “This justifies the inclusion of certain foreign statistical structures for international trade in transactions with the Zionist entity by adopting the original origin of the goods and the final destination, not by taking into account the rules of trade statistics adopted by our country’s statistical organs, under which direct exports are recorded and there is no trade exchange between Tunisia and the Zionist entity.”

This denial is in response to a report published by the United Nations website, “Comtrade”, on the volume of annual trade between Tunisia and the Israeli occupation worth $29 million.

According to the website, Tunisia imports electronic products, animal and vegetable oils, watches and medical devices from Israel, while the occupying country imports clothing and foodstuffs from Tunisia.

Earlier, the official spokesman for the Tunisian Ministry of Trade, Mohamed Ali Ferchichi, denied the existence of any official trade exchanges between Tunisia and Israel, explaining that “Tunisia’s first partner is the European Union, so this partner can sell Tunisian goods to Israel, and Tunisia is not responsible for this matter.”

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