Egypt
Days before 2005 closed, Egypt and Turkey finally signed a free trade agreement (FTA) the negotiations of which began in 1997.
A high-powered Turkish delegation, headed by President Ahmed Necdet Sezer, arrived in Cairo last month to sign a free-trade deal with Egypt in what an editorial in the Turkish Daily News said could be a “turning point in relations between two regional powers.”
When representatives of Egypt, Israel and the US met in Cairo last December, they signed a historic agreement that more or less linked Egypt’s industrial success to its willingness to cooperate with its traditional foe, Israel.
Both countries are currently committed to the Barcelona process and plan to join the Mediterranean free trade region by 2010. The process envisages the foundation of a free trade region consisting of 25 European Union and 10 Mediterranean countries, including Turkey and Egypt.
Egyptian Minister of Foreign Trade and Industry, Rasheed Mohammed Rasheed, said a free trade agreement will be signed by Egypt and Turkey during next week’s visit of Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer to Cairo.
Deputy Chief Executive of the Economic Development Board (EDB) Dr Zakaria Hijris has urged the Egyptian private sector to benefit from the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Bahrain and the US.
Arabs attending a conference in Bahrain blasted yesterday Washington’s "Big Brother" attitude in bilateral Free Trade Agreements, saying they are political tools to serve US interests rather than enhance economic prosperity in the region.
United States trade representative Rob Portman designated on Monday a new Qualifying Industrial Zone (QIZ) in Egypt and approved the expansion of two existing zones.
Egypt and Israel have agreed to expand the scope of an agreement which allows Egypt to export products containing a quota of Israeli components to the United States free of customs duties.
Egypt and Russia will reportedly start negotiations next month with a view to reaching a free trade agreement.
Intensive talks between Egypt and the USA, especially on intellectual property, are currently take place as a preliminary step toward concluding a free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries.
Turkish Industry & Trade Minister Ali Coskun said Turkey and Egypt are on the last step to sign FTA between the two countries.
Nine months into the first experiment in free trade with the United States, few participating manufacturers have reported a jump in production - most haven’t shipped unit one.
The Bush administration said it’s considering separate entreaties from Egypt, Malaysia, South Korea and Switzerland to negotiate free-trade agreements with them.
The US Administration will put forward the draft to the Egyptian-US free trade agreement to the Congress by the end of the current year, Egypt’s Foreign Trade and Industry Minister Rashid Mohamed Rashid said.
D-8 region consisting of eight Muslim countries — Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey — has set the end of 2005 as the target for the finalisation of the last draft of the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA).
Agreement for the Establishment of a Free Trade Zone between the Arabic Mediterranean Nations
As the European Union enters a difficult watershed moment in its internal affairs, Egypt and the partner countries in the EU’s ten-year Euro-Mediterranean Partnership ponder their own new administrative spiderweb. The new European Neighborhood Policy was designed to speed up free trade and strengthen human rights and political reforms - but it could pass us over altogether.
The prospects for an Egypt-US free trade agreement came into question last week with US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick’s visit to Cairo.
After seven years of negotiations carried out in fits and spurts - and the near-death of talks under the previous government of Atef Ebeid - Turkey and Egypt are finally set to sign a free trade agreement in the coming two months.
