Despite diplomatic tension, trade between the European Union and Israel will continue to grow, EU’s ambassador to Israel, Lars Faaborg-Andersen, told this week The Jerusalem Post diplomatic conference.

“The EU and Israel might have disagreements and just like friends and families we might have emotionally charged arguments, but this should not overshadow the deep and close relationship we enjoy and have had over the decades on economic and trade matters,” he said.

He dismissed as a ‘’minuscule issue’’ last year’s EU Commission decision to label products originating from settlements, saying : “We have to keep a sense of proportion here: We have a €30 billion a year trade between us, settlement products on a good day constitute €200 million a year, it’s minuscule in the larger picture. But the general economic situation is great, trade is improving and growing by the day.”

At the same conference, Ohad Cohen, who heads the Foreign Trade Administration at the Israeli Economy Ministry, said that “Israel is trying to diversify its markets.’’ ‘’While the EU is and will remain an important partner, we must also look east and south. In the past few years we started negotiating free trade area agreements with China, the customs union of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, with South Korea, with Vietnam, and with India, in order to diversify our exports.”