Israel-UK task force for post-Brexit trade deal

A British-Israeli task force goes into action in late March to prepare the ground for a new, separate trade deal after UK Prime Minister Theresa May Wednesday formally triggered Britain’s exit from the European Union. The new mechanism, to meet three times a year, was set up by May and Binyamin Netanyahu when the Israeli prime minister visited Downing Street last month. The UK is Israel’s second biggest trading partner ($3.95bn a year) after the United States and both governments are set to boost the ties.
In the biggest UK-Israel trade deal in history, Rolls-Royce landed a hefty contract to service and maintain its Trent 1000 engines for the El Al airline, In the other direction, Israel’s Elbit Systems is in a consortium that provides the British Ministry of Defense with training aircraft and simulators. While trade negotiations with the US are a priority for London too, Israel, Canada, Australia and New Zealand top of the UK’s list of potential post-Brexit trade deals.