Benjamin Netanyahu to meet with Lutnick and Greer to discuss Trump tariffs

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet today (Sunday) with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in an effort to get the Trump administration to eliminate or at least reduce the tariffs imposed on Israel by Trump's executive order of April 2, what Trump called "Liberation Day."

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 believes that it is not being hit with the lowest possible tariff, and Israel believes this is so because 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.

Netanyahu will argue that many items which Israel exports to the US do not in fact originate in Israel, but are instead 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, Israel's main economic engine, 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.