US embassy cable - 05TELAVIV4246

C O N F I D E N T I A L TEL AVIV 004246 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PLEASE PASS TO USTR EASUMS 
GENEVA FOR USTR - ALICIA GREENIDGE 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/06/2015 
TAGS: ECON, ETRD, IS, ECONOMY AND FINANCE 
SUBJECT: (C) ISRAEL WILL NOT SUBMIT REVISED OFFER FOR 
SERVICES NEGOTIATIONS 
 
REF: A) SECSTATE 103543 B) SECSTATE 81619 
 
Classified By: Acting Economic Counselor Robert Tansey for Reasons 1.4 
(b) and (d) 
 
1. (C) Econoff delivered reftels to Ministry of Industry, 
Trade and Labor staff.  Yoram Zara (Director Multilateral 
Agreements Division); Yair Shiran (Director International 
Agreements and Trade Policy) and Ami Levin (Multilateral 
Trade Division, and POC for North America) all stated that 
Israel has no intention to submit a revised offer for the 
services negotiations "until progress is made on NAMA and 
Agriculture negotiations." 
 
2. (C) Shiran commented that Israel was one of only twenty 
countries that submitted an initial offer on time and has 
"done its part" in advancing the services negotiations.  He 
also noted that Israel has not submitted any requests for 
revisions of other WTO members proposals and does not feel 
there is much for Israel to gain in service negotiations, 
since they enjoy relatively free market access via bilateral 
FTAs. 
 
3. (C) Commenting on the importance of NAMA and Agriculture 
negotiations, Shiran said that Israel finds the "request and 
offer" process most important, and that they are seeking 
specific market access for specific products.  As an example 
he noted IT products access in Brazil.  Turning to the 
agriculture negotiations, Shiran commented that Israeli 
flexibility in submitting a revised services offer would be 
"made easier" if they maintained the right to be considered a 
developing country.  "In light of heavy US and EU subsidies 
for agribusiness," he argued that the only option for 
protecting the "relatively un-subsidized and open Israeli 
agriculture market" was Israel's ability to maintain some 
tariff protection. 
 
4. (C) Finally, Yoram Zara detailed that there is an internal 
decision making process occurring regarding a possible 
revised services offer.  He noted that the one area where 
Israel might be willing to make a revised offer was in the 
computer field as a member of the Friends of Computer 
Services Group.  However, he reiterated that any offer in the 
services negotiations was tied to progress in other areas. 
 
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