Asked if he plans to drop 17% tariff on Israeli goods, Trump says, Maybe not

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finished his visit to Washington, D.C., without any public commitment by President Donald Trump to roll back the 17% tariff he is imposing on Israeli goods.

Asked during a press conference with Netanyahu on Monday whether he planned to adjust the tariff, Trump demurred.

“Maybe not,” Trump said. He then brought up America’s military aid to Israel.

“Don’t forget, we help Israel a lot,” he said. “You know, we give Israel $4 billion a year — and congratulations, by the way, that’s pretty good — but we give Israel billions of dollars a year. Billions. It’s one of the highest.”

The comment was a reflection of Trump’s belief that other countries take advantage of the United States. It was also a blow to Netanyahu, who had made the tariff was a top goal of his trip. Israeli media emphasized that, unlike during his previous White House visit in February, Netanyahu had returned to Israel without a victory to declare.

Netanyahu’s ambitions had been clear. When his office announced late Saturday that Netanyahu was returning to Washington for a second meeting with Trump, “the tariff issue” came first on the list of topics on the anticipated agenda. Trump’s tariff on Israeli goods was higher than what Trump imposed on some countries with which the United States has had cooler relations and came after Israeli officials abolished all tariffs on U.S. imports in a bid to stave Trump off.

On Sunday, as Netanyahu departed Budapest for the United States, he released a statement reiterating his agenda.

“From here, I am departing for the US, at the invitation of President Trump, to talk with him, of course, about these issues: The hostages, achieving victory in Gaza and — of course — the tariff regime that has been imposed on Israel,” he said. “I hope that I will be able to help on this issue. That is the intention.”

But after meeting with Treasury Secretary Howard Lutnick, Vice President J.D. Vance, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump, Netanyahu exacted no public concessions. Instead, he said in public comments before his Trump meeting that he had discussed the tariffs with Lutnick and Trump — and said he had promised to make additional changes in a bid to remove them.

“I can tell you that I said to the President a very simple thing, ‘We will eliminate the trade deficit with the United States.’ We intend to do it very quickly. We think it’s the right thing to do,” he said. “We’re going to also eliminate trade barriers, a variety of trade barriers that have been put up unnecessarily. I think Israel can serve as a model for many countries who ought to do the same.”

Netanyahu added: “I recognize the position of the United States, it says, you know, we’re allowing other countries to put tariffs on us but we don’t put tariffs on them. And, you know, I’m a free trade champion but free trade has to be fair trade. And I think that’s basically the position that you have put forward, Mr. President. We are going to eliminate the tariffs and rapidly.”

He said he had discussed the potential speed of rolling back the tariffs with Lutnick. “We talked about how we could affect this quickly and I hope to bring a solution very quickly,” Netanyahu said. “We’re not talking about intentions, we’re not talking about, you know, just words. We’re talking about results. And those results are going to come fast.”

Source: https://www.jta.org/2025/04/08/israel/asked-if-he-plans-to-drop-17-tariff-on-israeli-goods-trump-says-maybe-not?utm_source=JTA_Iterable&utm_campaign=JTA_DB&utm_medium=email