Netanyahu to sign trade agreement with South Korea sans settlements – report

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is slated to fly to South Korea at the end of the month for his first trip to the Asian nation, where he will sign a landmark free trade agreement between the two countries that will not apply to the West Bank and the Golan Heights, Channel 13 reports.

Citing unnamed senior government sources, the station says Netanyahu’s trip, like similar trips to Brazil and elsewhere earlier this year, is also part of his effort to project a worldly image ahead of the September 17 election.

The trade deal will lower prices for Korean-made products and, officials believe, increase Israeli exports to the country.

But the agreement includes a “territorial clause” that excludes products produced by Israelis in the West Bank, East Jerusalem or the Golan Heights.

Israel has long opposed including such clauses in trade agreements, and the refusal has long stymied efforts to seal the trade deal with Seoul, Channel 13 says.

The Netanyahu government has now lifted its opposition, but says Israel will add to the agreement notice of its protest over the clause and notes that it does not see in its acquiescence a precedent related to the future standing of the settlements.