Israel's exports to the U.S. can andmust double over the next five years if the mideast nation's
goal of economic independence is to be achieved, said Gad
Yaacobi, Israeli minister of Economy and Communication.
    Speaking before an American-Israel Chamber of Commerce
seminar, Yaacobi said that in 1986 Israeli exports to the U.S.
were over 2.3 billion dlrs or about one-third of Israel's total
exports, while imports from the U.S. were around 1.8 billion
dlrs or roughly one-sixth of the total.
    "I am convinced that Israel exports to the U.S. can reach
five billion dlrs in the next five years, if we learn to
function in the American marketplace and place greater emphasis
on product quality," Yaacobi said.
    While the weakening of the dollar vis-a-vis European
currencies is a "bottleneck to increasing exports to the U.S.,"
Yaacobi said he expects Israel to extend its recent trend
toward higher U.S. exports.
    In the last ten years, Israeli exports to the U.S. rose
fivefold, from 417 mln dlrs to 2.3 billion in 1986, while
imports rose from 888 mln dlrs to 1.8 billion last year.
    Yaacobi said export growth must increase ten to eleven pct
annually, the rate achieved until the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
     He said that the U.S./Israel Free Trade agreement, passed
last year and eliminating all duties and other commercial
restrictions between the two nations through 1994, would
continue to facilitate the desired export growth.
    Dual agreements included in the FTA allow Israel to act as
an economic bridge between the U.S. and Europe, enabling U.S.
firms to export to Europe at lower cost if a certain percentage
of the exported is produced in Israel, and vice-versa.
    Yaacobi said that tensions among the nations of the middle
east was one of the main reasons Israel had not yet been able
to achieve its economic potential.
    Since 1973 the U.S. has given Israel 25 billion dlrs in
aid, but most of it went to defense expenditures and financing
military conflicts "which were imposed on Israel," he said.
    Short of achieving Israel's full growth potential, however,
Yaccobi said it would still be possible to achieve economic
independence by 1993 or 1994, based on the assumption that
exports can be doubled from 1986 levels in that time period.
 Reuter
