The government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has decided to exempt Palestinian products from import duties in line with an Arab summit resolution, Al Bayan newspaper reported Tuesday.
The decision was announced following a cabinet meeting, at which the council discussed and agreed to a memorandum from the minister of trade suggesting the move, said the paper.
The decision "falls into the framework of support from the UAE to the Palestinian people in the current circumstances," Palestinian consul general in Dubai Salim Abu Sultan told AFP.
Sultan said the exemption, urged by the Cairo summit last October, was symbolic because of the "feeble" volume of products -- mainly olive oil, soap, glass and leatherware -- exported from the West Bank and Gaza to the UAE.
"Even before the Intifada (uprising against Israel), the Israelis were putting obstacles in the way of Palestinian products exported to the UAE via Jordan," he told the agency – Albawaba.com
