The Knesset Finance Committee on Sunday morning 21 Adar approved a Ministry of the Economy request to permit grape juice imports from the USA into Israel without charging value added tax ahead of Pesach.

The lifting of VAT applies to 100,000 one liter bottles from the USA, doubling the annual amount imported.

Economics Minister Eli Cohen explains a great effort was made in a short period of time to permit the grape juice in time for Yomtov.

It is reported that over 10 million one-liter bottles of grape juice are sold annually in Israel. 230,000 bottles are imported tax free from the EU and 100,000 additional liters from the USA as per standing agreements. The import agreement from the US is only for one-liter bottles while from EU areas, some of the grape juice arrives in barrels and bottles are filled locally.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)