Meeting Trump, Netanyahu vows to ‘eliminate’ US-Israel trade deficit

Meeting US President Donald Trump at the White House, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will eliminate all trade barriers with the US.

“We will eliminate the trade deficit with the United States,” Netanyahu says also vowing to remove “all trade barriers.”

“Israel can serve as a model for other countries that strive to do the same,” Netanyahu says.

Netanyahu says he sympathizes with Trump’s position on tariffs and says he is a free trade advocate, but “free trade has to be fair trade.”

Later in their Oval Office press briefing, Trump says countries would not have been willing to negotiate on tariffs with the US if he hadn’t taken the steps he took in recent days.

Even Netanyahu, Trump says, “started off our conversation today” by saying that “he’s cutting off all of the tariffs, everything. He’s going to get down to a free base.”