Newsletter
Newsletter Support JNS

US extends duty-free access for some Israeli farm items through 2026

A White House proclamation will allow specific quantities of designated agricultural products to enter the U.S. market without tariffs.

Israeli Farm, Negev
A farmer at moshav Sade Nitzan in the northern Negev Desert on Oct. 9, 2025. Photo by Yossi Aloni/Flash90.

U.S. President Donald Trump signed a proclamation on Dec. 29 extending duty-free access for certain Israeli agricultural products entering the United States through the end of 2026, continuing a long-standing bilateral trade agreement between the two allies.

The proclamation, titled “To Implement the United States-Israel Agreement on Trade in Agricultural Products and for Other Purposes,” updates the U.S. tariff schedule to carry out commitments under a 2004 agricultural trade agreement with Israel.

It allows specified quantities of “eligible agricultural products of Israel” to enter the U.S. market without tariffs from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31.

According to the proclamation, the step is a broader effort to modernize U.S.-Israel agricultural trade rules. The document notes that the two countries signed an agreement on Dec. 1, providing for “permanent modifications” to the 2004 accord, followed by a second agreement on Dec. 4 to temporarily extend existing terms while those changes are implemented.

Originally signed in 1985 under the wider U.S.-Israel Free Trade Area Agreement, the agricultural component has been renewed periodically since 2004, with duty-free access governed by annual quota levels set out in the U.S. Harmonized Tariff Schedule.

In addition to the Israel-related provisions, the proclamation makes technical corrections to the tariff schedule that address outdated references and rules-of-origin provisions connected to other U.S. trade agreements, including one with Singapore.

The White House described these adjustments as administrative fixes rather than policy changes.

“This could have been the greatest terrorist tragedy in America since 9/11,” Eric Fingerhut, president and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, told JNS.
The outcomes of the primaries show that “being pro-America, pro-Israel is good policy and good politics,” the Republican Jewish Coalition told JNS.
The memo calls on the party to be aware of “the strategic goal of groypers across the nation” to take over the Republican party from within.
The New York City mayor said that he is “grateful that Leqaa has been released this evening from ICE custody after more than a year in detention for speaking up for Palestinian rights.”
“I hope all the folks from Temple Israel know that we’re praying for them,” the U.S. vice president said. “We’re thinking about them.”
The co-author of the K-12 law told JNS that “this attempt to undermine crucial safety protections for Jewish children at a time when antisemitic hate and violence is rampant and rising is breathtaking.”