Despite the global financial crisis, commerce between Israel and
the Palestinian Authority has been steadily increasing, amounting to NIS 19 billion (roughly $5 billion) in 2008, a report reviewing Israel and the PA's financial trade revealed Wednesday.
The report, complied by the Israel Tax Authority (ITA), was presented at a conference hosted by Israel Customs. Funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the meeting – the second of its kind – brought together Israeli and Palestinian businessmen.
The conference, held near the Allenby Bridge, presented the businessmen with a review of the trading activity between Israel and the West Bank, as well as with data on commercial and passenger traffic going through Allenby Bridge.
According to the segmentation, NIS 14.6 billion ($3.84B) in revenues stemmed from local trade and NIS 4.6 billion ($1.21B) were the result of import and export ventures.
The Tax Authority noted that the first half of 2009 indicated the positive commerce trend was ongoing.
The Allenby Bridge services some 1.5 million people a year and allowed some NIS 500,000 millions worth of commerce through (about $131.73 billion).
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