July Edition 2024

21 eliminating duty rates on certain products and services, FTAs also address modern trade challenges in areas such as labour, environment, certification, and intellectual property. Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement (CIFTA): In 2014, Canada and Israel agreed to modernize the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement (CIFTA), a goods-only agreement in force since January 1, 1997. Through two phases of negotiations in 2014-2015 and 2017-2018, Canada and Israel updated four chapters and added nine new chapters to CIFTA. The modernized CIFTA improves access to the Israeli market for Canadian companies through further elimination and reduction of tariffs on agricultural, agri-food and fisheries products. With the addition of new chapters on Trade and Gender and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, as well as new provisions on responsible business conduct and new labour and environmental protections, the modernized CIFTA signals the importance of inclusive trade and ensuring that the benefits and opportunities that flow from trade and investment are more widely shared. Since CIFTA first came into effect over two decades ago, Canada’s two-way merchandise trade with Israel has more than tripled and was valued at nearly CAD $1.8 billion in 2021. Two-way services trade was valued at CAD $412 million in 2020. Canada–Israel 2024-2025 collaborative industrial research and development call for proposals Working together, the governments of Canada and Israel aim to foster and support collaborative industrial research and development (R&D) projects with a high potential for commercialization. This call for proposals is open to organizations from Canada and Israel who wish to form project consortia to perform collaborative projects focused on developing innovative products, processes or technology based services. A new Bilateral Canada-Israel funding call for up to $500K CAD commercial R&D just opened. Funded to foster collaborative industrial research and development (R&D) projects with a high potential for commercialization. Open to all tech sectors with special considerations for: Agricultural technologies

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