Stressing the ‘billions’ US gives in aid, Trump refuses to commit to removing tariffs on Israel
At White House summit, Netanyahu promises to eliminate trade deficit with US, but fails to get promise from president to roll back policy
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
Speaking to the press alongside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, US President Donald Trump declined to commit to removing the 17% tariffs he had imposed on Israel on Monday.
“Well, we’re talking about a whole new trade — maybe not,” he said in response to a question about whether he would reverse the tariffs. “Maybe not.”
Israel had hoped to avoid Trump’s sweeping decree last week to impose levies on global imports. Instead, it was hit with a 17% tariff despite lifting all remaining duties on US imports in a last-minute attempt to be spared.
The US is Israel’s closest ally and largest single trading partner.
“Don’t forget, we help Israel a lot,” Trump said in the Oval Office, as Netanyahu listened beside him to the implied criticism. “We give Israel $4 billion a year, that’s a lot.”
“We give Israel billions of dollars a year. Billions. It’s one of the highest of anyone. We give a lot of countries money, you wouldn’t believe it.”
“We take good care of our friends, and we don’t take care of our enemies,” he said.
Netanyahu said in his prepared remarks that Israel would eliminate all trade barriers with the US.
“Israel can serve as a model for other countries that strive to do the same,” he added.
Netanyahu said he sympathizes with Trump’s position on tariffs and that he is a free trade advocate, but “free trade has to be fair trade.”
In the Oval Office press briefing, Trump said 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 said, “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.”
According to an analysis published Sunday by the Manufacturers Association of Israel and presented to Netanyahu, Israeli exports will take an annual $2.3 billion hit from the tariffs if they remain at 17%, and between 18,000 and 26,000 Israelis could lose their jobs.
In addition, the association warned that should Trump expand the tariffs to include the pharmaceutical and chip industries, which the sweeping edict has yet to touch, the damage to Israeli exports could reach an annual $3 billion.
The areas that are expected to be hit hardest, it said, were hi-tech, including biotech, plastic, metals, chemicals and fuels, robotics and electronic components.
The US is Israel’s single largest trade partner, and in 2024, it imported more than $13.5 billion worth of goods from Israel.
The damage caused by the tariffs “is expected to have a significant impact on the competitiveness of the entire economy, on the ability to attract investments, on our technological superiority, and more,” President of the Manufacturers Association Ron Tomer wrote in a letter to Netanyahu.
Warning of a worst-case scenario in which the US also slaps tariffs on additional industries, Tomer noted that duties imposed on hardware exports “will also directly harm the export of software services and related services in Israeli high-tech” due to the integrated business models implemented by many of Israel’s tech companies.
“In light of the expected serious consequences, I call on you to take all diplomatic and economic measures at your disposal to prevent the imposition of taxes,” Tomer wrote, urging Netanyahu to push the Trump administration on the matter.
“Through decisive and rapid action, it will be possible to prevent serious harm to the Israeli economy,” he said.
Ahead of Netanyahu’s departure for talks in Washington on Sunday, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he briefed him on the economic implications of the tariffs and on ways to prevent harm to the Israeli industry and economy.
The Finance Ministry has been studying the implications of the tariffs since they were announced last Wednesday and has been working to examine the necessary follow-up steps.
Smotrich said on Thursday that he had been “personally” speaking to industry leaders about the impact of the 17% duty, and had led a discussion with Finance Ministry management to “analyze opportunities and risks and formulate courses of action.”
Sharon Wrobel contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.