Finance minister urges US, EU to help increase competition on imports to Israel

Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman has written to the heads of the US Federal Trade Commission and the European Union’s commissioner for competition to ask them to take steps to help increase import competition in Israel and lower consumer costs.

Channel 12 airs details of a letter sent to the two officials, in which Liberman says restrictive deals between American and European manufacturers and official Israeli importers make it difficult for parallel importers to bring in products.

“Additionally,” he says, “Israeli importers have occasionally been subjected to unfair pricing and distribution practices,” contributing to higher product costs.

These issues, he says, have discouraged competition in Israel and disadvantaged Israeli consumers.

He asks the officials to work together to encourage greater competition on Israeli imports for the benefit of Israeli consumers.