Brussels proposes imposing tariffs on Israel over the situation in Gaza

The European Commission will suspend all trade privileges it maintains with Israel, but its adherence to World Trade Organization rules when implementing this measure limits the impact to just €220 million.

A blow to the European Commission's table . The institution led by Ursula von der Leyen has decided to take action in the Middle East conflict, considering that Israel may have violated human rights in its attacks on Gaza.

As the president announced last week in her speech during the debate on the State of the EU, the EU executive proposes suspending the trade advantages it granted to Israel under its cooperation agreement.

"There are special clauses within all our agreements that allow for the suspension of trade benefits, and in this case, we believe they have been breached with regard to the defense of human rights," EU sources argue.

The European Commission's measures strictly follow the rules established by the World Trade Organization (WTO) , which means they will only affect the portion of trade specifically benefited by the agreement. Thus, the new tariffs will impact 37% of the total €15.9 billion that the EU imports from Israel each year .

The remaining 63% will maintain the usual trade conditions established for WTO partners, i.e., low or even 0% tariffs for machinery and pharmaceutical products . Thus, the final impact of the EU pressure measure will be around €220 million, according to European Commission estimates, if trade flows remain unchanged.

"We eliminated the advantages, but we followed international trade rules at all times," say EU sources, who want to distance their decision to pressure Israel over human rights issues from the tariff measures taken by Donald Trump this year.

The EU is one of Israel's largest trading partners , accounting for 32% of all its exports. However, the impact of the proposed tariff is small, at just 1.5% of total exports, because the trade advantages were granted primarily to agricultural products, while the bulk of European purchases from Israel are focused on machinery, transportation equipment, and chemical products.

"We don't want to eliminate trade with Israel, we simply want to suspend certain benefits that were granted within the framework of a cooperation agreement that we now consider to have been breached," EU sources say.

The pressure measure seeks to force Israel to refocus its position in Gaza , although for the moment it does not include any specific measures that, if implemented, could allow for the reactivation of trade benefits. According to the EU executive, the general idea is to achieve peace between Israel and Gaza, to facilitate the entry of food and humanitarian aid, and, ultimately, to seek a two-state solution in the territory that the EU now considers to be undermined.

As this is a trade issue, the exclusive responsibility of the European Commission, the EU Council, made up of the ministers of the Member States, will only need to form a qualified majority to advance the proposal.

Along with the trade measures, the European Commission also proposes approving a package of sanctions against Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Ben Gvir, who are described as "extremists," and against members of Hamas.

In this case, the Council of the European Union will need unanimity for the sanctions to be approved, as has been the case so far in other similar recent actions directed primarily at Russia.