Benjamin Netanyahu hopes to convince Trump to drop his tariffs - here's how

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet with President Donald Trump tomorrow (Monday), hoping to change his mind on tariffs against Israel by showing that Israel actually imports substantially more from America than his administration believes, according to a report by Kann News.

According to Kann economics reporter Liel Kaiser, Prime Minister Netanyahu will meet Trump tomorrow equipped with "talking points" from the senior officials at the Finance Ministry explaining that Trump's rationale for imposing a 17% tariff on Israeli goods is based on miscalculations by the Trump administration.

According to the argument, Israel - which has now entirely zeroed out all tariffs on American goods - believes that it is not being hit with the lowest possible tariff, which is 10%, and which it deserves to be given. This is because Israel believes the Trump administration miscalculated the ostensible "trade deficit" the US has with Israel.

Contrary to Trump administration officials, who believe Israel exports more to the US than vice versa, Israel is set to import a very large amount of military equipment which it is buying from the United States, and which should be included in Trump's calculations.

Furthermore, Israel will argue that many items which Israel exports to the US do not in fact originate in Israel, but are simply re-exported from other countries - with a major example being diamonds, a large source of Israeli revenue.

Israel hopes that these arguments will work, since tariffs could affect the Israeli hi-tech industry by hitting the exports of technological components of all kinds, at a time when increasing defense needs make keeping the economy strong all the more vital.