Argentina this week became the last South American country within the Mercosur political and economic consortium to sign onto a regional free trade agreement with Israel, according to Port2Port.

Last year, trade between Israeli companies and the Mercosur bloc stood at US$1.8bn, of which only approximately US$130m was with Argentina.

Now, with high tariffs no longer an obstacle, Israeli officials anticipate a substantil increase in trade with the bloc.

Brazil, the largest regional economy, is expected to triple its trade with Israel by 2015, having seen trade increase from US$922m in 2009 to some US$1.35bn last year.

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