Trade Agreements: Israel

(asked on 20th February 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if her Department will make an assessment of the feasibility of excluding (a) Israeli settlements and (b) other Occupied Palestinian Territories from the territorial application of a new UK-Israel Free Trade Agreement.


Answered by
Nigel Huddleston Portrait
Nigel Huddleston
Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
This question was answered on 29th March 2023

The UK’s position on settlements is clear. The UK does not recognise the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) as part of Israel.

This has been long established policy since 1967 and was reconfirmed recently at the UN security council.

Under the existing UK-Israel trade agreement, goods originating from illegal settlements in the West Bank, are not entitled to tariff and trade preferences under either the agreement between the UK and Israel, or the agreement between the UK and the Palestinian Authority.

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