Tuna salad: The Economics Committee is delaying the reduction of customs duties

A discussion in the Economics Committee, which was supposed to reduce customs duties on tuna imports, became particularly heated and heated, and in the end the finance officials were sent to bring more data.

Does the Economic Affairs Committee also succumb to the centralizing factors in the Israeli economy, or does it simply demand professionalism from the officials?

Between Ashkenazi

28/02/2022

Monday, 28 February 2022, 14:50 Updated: 15:17

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Only a quarter of an hour into the discussion on the cost of living in the Economics Committee was enough for the chairman,

, to stop the discussion and reprimand the representatives of the Ministry of Finance who did not bring data to discuss the consequences of abolishing tariffs on consumers.

Bitton asked

: "Did you check the behavior of the market after the abolition of the tuna quotas and did you check how much eventually ends up in customers' pockets and how many importers?"

Gilad Katsav replied: "Regarding the details of the plan, I do not have details of all the covers, but we are talking about many consumer and food products."

Bitton continued to ask: "Where is the table? It was published?"

Katsav replied: "I do not have it. We can move on. Most of the products in which the caps will be lowered were announced to the public at the press conference of the Prime Minister and the Ministers of Finance and Economy.

"

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Who will benefit from lowering the caps?

It seems that the lobbyists have succeeded in convincing the Economy Committee (Photo: ShutterStock)

The importer is against the manufacturer

But this step did not really benefit MK

, because even after a quarter of an hour the Treasury did not bring the data. Despite everything, the discussion continued.

"It moves around five shekels and after lowering the tariffs, it is still sold today at a price that hovers around five shekels. The consumer does not enjoy the price reduction, so where is the struggle here over the cost of living?

"It should be understood," Cohen continued, "that in the past there were five factories in the country for the production of tuna and then the factories moved to import and Starkist closed the plant in 2018. We are the only factory producing in the country. In front of the importers and especially in front of Starkist, which has a market share of 40 percent. "

, He said: "There is no tuna industry in Israel, in the past we protected tuna packaged in Israel."

Cohen did not remain obligated and said, "Have you been to my factory? Have you seen my factory?"

Williger replied: "What interests us is how the tuna is reduced. I have been in this market for over twenty-five years. There is a clear fact that there is no issue of security for Israeli industry here because tuna is not grown here. It comes from abroad, some in boxes and some in packaging.

As soon as you remove lids, the audience will enjoy a NIS 80-90 million decrease in the price of the tuna.

Today Piltona's price is more expensive than our factory that imports tuna from abroad.

MK Michael Bitton, Chairman of the Economics Committee.

You confronted the finance representatives.

The question is only who does it serve? (Photo: Reuven Castro)

Who will benefit from the reduction of caps?

The continuation of the discussion dealt with the question of whether the local producers should be protected and whether the abolition of the tariffs would affect the prices we pay for the food or whether the business owners, i.e. the importers, would be the only ones to benefit from them.

Chairman Bitton continued in a tough line with representatives of the Ministry of Finance: "The position paper of the Knesset Information and Research Center shows that despite the lowering of tariffs, the price has not dropped, so from today I will not read articles by the Knesset and the CBS?"

replied: "We have seen a reduction in concentration and a decrease in the market share of the leading importer. It could be because of the tariffs. Tuna is considered a sensitive and difficult product to import.

The hard point: "What is your position on the fact that domestic production has declined and imports from abroad have risen the way it should be?"

Dan replied:

Bitton: "I am in favor of coming in the right place but not in the wrong place. How do you guarantee that a diplomat will not receive the money from the caps?"

Dan: "The prophecy was not given to me, I can not predict anything, I can say that the import reform will bring in new players."

At this stage, the person who intervened is

, who regularly attends the committee's deliberations and tries to express his opinion. Barkat asked the finance representatives if it is true that they want to increase agricultural imports to 50%

? .

The number 50 percent I do not know, it is according to estimates of farmers.

It is very possible that imports will increase significantly. Imports of fruits and vegetables in Israel are extremely low. "

Barkat:" They understand that they are going to eliminate agriculture, that is a goal. "

Katsav replied: "The import rate of fruits and vegetables in Israel is very, very low. Less than 10%. In the EU, imports are about 35%. Our goal is not to increase imports but to lower prices."

Bitton said: "In Europe there is snow all the time but here it is sunny for many months is it bad that we provide ourselves with fruits and vegetables? Is there a mitzvah in the Torah to import? Why do you have a goal to increase imports? On what basis?"

Katsav replied: "When you look at products in which we have reduced tariffs, you unequivocally see a decrease in consumer prices, so you want to promote good prices."

At the end of the meeting, MK Bitton said: "We are appealing to the government just before it reduces tariffs by NIS 1.3 billion, not to carry out the action before the inter-ministerial committee they set up to examine the brokerage gaps will end its work.

Only then will we know where it is possible to lower caps without harming the consumer or transferring money to importers who control the market.

I ask the Treasury, the Competition Authority and the Ministry of Economy to take the tuna as a test case: who will benefit when you lower the last 12 percent in customs.

Will it be a diplomat?

There is a high chance yes.

We ask the Treasury to send the committee the list of tariff reductions to the committee immediately upon publication.

"Check to see if any product has been carefully thought out."

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• Economic Committee

• tuna

• Customs

• Ministry of Finance