17 Alex Haffner, Partner, Fladgate: From our perspective here at Fladgate LLP, very good. The extremely strong ties which bind UK and Israel continue to hold. Moreover, we have found that the UK has not lost any of its luster as the primary location for Israeli companies looking to expand into the European continent, not least given the climate for investment in the UK which (Covid-19 aside) can best be described as buoyant. Etay Katz, Partner, Ashurst: The UK has a Trade and Partnership Agreement with Israel that has been fully in force from 1 January 2021. This free trade agreement is one of the UK’s trade continuity agreements – UK trade deals with countries, which had an agreement with the EU before 1 January 2021. With some modifications, these deals generally replicate the terms of EU trade agreements, which the UK enjoyed before leaving the EU. The agreement covers areas such as trade in goods, customs tariffs and tariff rate quota, rules of origin, trade in services, intellectual property rights, government procurement, and conformity assessment of pharmaceuticals The UK government subsequently announced that it will seek to upgrade the UK's trade and investment relationship with Israel. The UK has for a long period seen Israel as a strategic partner in matters of sciences, defence and technology. Given the continued prominence of Israel as a technology and science hub we would expect the relationship to strengthen with the UK trying to effectively compete in its chosen areas with former and emerging European industry hubs. In particular, the UK is keen to enhance its world leading software (e.g. cybersecurity), hardware (e.g. semiconductor chip industry) and in continuing to cement London as a global hub for FinTech innovators including established financial institutions and newcomers. The rapid pace of innovation that continues to flow from Israel is seen by the UK as critical in solidifying the UK in an Amidst the slew of global events to take place in the past two years, one of the more landmark ‘exits’ was that of Brexit, which may feel like on the backburner. Nonetheless, since the new relationship between the UK and EU started on January 1, 2021, we take a look at how this is unfolding and especially with regards to the Israeli companies in the UK. We sat down with two leading partners, from leading multinational law firm Ashurst and hugely prominent UK firm, Fladgate, for their insights and thoughts. We are over a year on from Brexit, and while overshadowed by the Coronavirus pandemic, how has the post-Brexit relationship been between Israel and the UK?
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