November 21, 2006
Thank you, Ambassador Shoval. Good evening ladies and gentlemen. It is an honor for me to host you at my residence for this year's AmCham Awards dinner.
This year's awardees are most deserving for the key role they have played both as individuals and as companies in strengthening trade between the United States and Israel. Before we present these awards, however, I thought I would share with you a few thoughts about the Israeli-American commercial relationship.
It is one of the most important pillars of the overall U.S.-Israeli bilateral relationship. The huge volume of trade exchanged between our two countries every year -almost $27 billion last year - is impressive in and of itself, but even more so when you consider that the United States routinely exports more to Israel than any other country in the region. We also buy more Israeli products than any other country on earth.
The goods and services that are exchanged between our nations certainly satisfy many of our various and sundry material needs. But our trade does much more than just that. U.S.-Israeli trade and cooperation in biotech research enhances the wellbeing and saves the lives of thousands of Americans and Israelis each day. U.S.-Israeli collaboration in information technologies is improving the efficiency of stronger, more prosperous future for generations to come. U.S.-Israeli cooperation on homeland security, an increasingly significant component of our trade these days, is making both our nations safer, through the development of cutting edge innovations.
So while $27 billion is impressive in its own right, it just scratches the surface of the total benefit that our bilateral trade provides to the daily lives of all Americans and Israelis, today and for the years to come.
I must say that Israel's most important asset is its rarest natural resource - its people. Their commercial and technical innovations combine to make this exciting and fast-paced market unique in the region. Truly, innovations are gushing out of this land faster than oil is flowing from the Gulf.
Is it any wonder then that investments are pouring into Israel just as rapidly? In fact, it seems that every time I turn around, there's another major business delegation from the United States visiting Israel to survey its rich and varied business landscape in search of local companies to work with, sell to, buy from, invest in or learn from. An equal number of Israeli firms are crossing the Atlantic in the other direction in search of America's profitable markets and abundant supplies of capital and technology.
During a Middle East Ambassador's Tour of Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York last month, I spoke to representatives of hundreds of U.S. companies interested in doing business in the region. My constant mantra was that Israel is a great place for Americans to do business. I emphasized the many reasons to be optimistic about Israel as a market and wowed my audiences with some of the many astounding statistics about Israel: most university degrees per capita, most published scientific papers per capita, 2nd largest number of companies on NASDAQ, 3rd largest number of U.S. patent holders. The list goes on and on and on.
But one particularly important aspect that makes Israel so unique in comparison to the other markets in this region is the extraordinary level of cultural and political affinity and sympathy between the United States and Israel. In the wake of September 11th and the ensuing security situation that has gripped the world, the United States has had no better ally in the region than Israel. To our amazing list of Israeli statistics, I am sure we could add that Israelis are second only to New Yorkers in number of NYPD t-shirts per capita.
However, we should never let the strong ties that bind our nations cause us to become complacent about U.S.-Israel trade. To realize the full potential of our commercial relationship, the United States and Israel must work together to resolve lingering irritants such as insufficient protection for U.S. intellectual property, market barriers created by the adoption of European technical standards, and the lack of transparency in some government tenders. As I explained earlier in the speech, our trade is not about numbers, it is about people. And these problems hurt real people, both Americans and Israelis.
Last week, I was in the United States where I participated in Prime Minister Olmert's visit to Washington. While I don't want to go into the details of the visit now, I can tell you in summary that our countries continue to work together closely on improving security and on addressing regional threats from Hizballah and Iran. We are also working on steps Israel can take vis-a`-vis the Palestinians that could greatly improve the lives for ordinary citizens without exacting any cost or concession from Israel, and there are win-win opportunities that we are encouraging the Government of Israel to explore. The Israeli Government has expressed support for the security plan for the Karni crossing prepared by the U.S. Security Coordinator LTG Keith Dayton and USAID in conjunction with Palestinian and Israeli experts. Karni is a critical "door to the world" through which Palestinian trade is conducted. The Dayton Karni security plan aims to reduce opportunities for extremists to sabotage the future of the Palestinian people while increasing the security of Israelis working at the crossing.
Greater trade helps to bring peace, and greater peace helps to bring trade. The two reinforce one another. I hope that at next year's AmCham Awards Dinner, we will be able to look back upon substantial progress in economic development and security on both sides of the Israeli/Palestinians line, and that we will have even more reason to cheer about U.S.-Israeli trade has reached new heights and has enriched even more lives.
Thank you all again for coming to tonight's AmCham Awards Dinner! Let us now honor four companies who have made outstanding contributions to the growth in U.S.-Israeli trade over the years, including this year. Ambassador Shoval, I turn the podium back to you.
