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Source: https://www.cjnews.com/news/canada/liberals-pass-new-israel-free-trade-deal-despite-ndp-objections
Canadian Parliament Approves New Israel Free Trade Deal
(Canadian Jewish News) Ron Csillag - The Canadian Parliament on Feb. 8 approved an updated free trade agreement between Canada and Israel. Two-way trade between Canada and Israel has tripled since the original 1997 deal, reaching $1.7 billion last year, Liberal MP Bardish Chagger told the House of Commons, speaking on behalf of Trade Minister Jim Carr. Canada's "strong friendship and partnership with Israel spans more than 70 years and stretches back even further to the arrival of the earliest Jewish settlers in Canada more than 250 years ago," she said, noting that there are more than 350,000 Jews in Canada "who are an important source of information and support in the political and commercial spheres for both Canada and Israel," and 20,000 Canadians currently living and working in Israel. Ontario Conservative MP David Sweet said we need to ensure that Israeli businesses continue to be able to hire Palestinians from the West Bank "without the crazy pressure from this boycott, divestment, sanctions movement that does not understand that they actually employ and allow Palestinians to prosper, to have jobs that are not in the Palestinian Authority." He said he feels "very bad for the innocent Palestinian people who suffer every day under tyrannical regimes like Hamas and for those people who suffer under the corruption of the Palestinian Authority."