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Andrey Slepnev: "The EAEU and Egypt expect to hold a full-fledged round of free trade negotiations in the near future"
Andrey Slepnev, Minister in charge of Trade of the Eurasian Economic Commission, held a meeting with Ihab Nasr, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Arab Republic of Egypt to the Russian Federation, who steps down from office, and thanked his colleague for supporting the work on the Free Trade Agreement.
"Today the sides are on target and intend to hold a full-fledged round of negotiations in November-December", Andrey Slepnev noted. "We see an opportunity to discuss the whole range of key arrangements".
In this regard, the EEC Minister in charge of Trade stressed the complementarity of economies of the Eurasian Economic Union countries and Egypt. This will enable accelerating the search for mutually agreed solutions.
Andrey Slepnev has also reminded that Egypt is a kind of gateway to the African continent. For this reason, he invited partners to implement relevant possibilities in practice.
"I can add that Egypt is the gateway not only to the African continent, but also to the Arab markets and – on the contrary – to the markets of the European Union countries. I think that cooperation and interaction will enable economies of all six countries participating in the future agreement to develop in a faster and more dynamic way", Ihab Nasr concluded.
In conclusion, the EEC Minister in charge of Trade wished the Ambassador further career success and expressed hope for continued fruitful cooperation with the Egyptian side on such relevant matters of the international trade agenda as, for example, transiting to low-carbon technologies.
Trade with Egypt increased by 32.5% in H1 of 2021 compared to the same period last year. In particular, the EAEU Member States’ exports to Egypt increased by almost
40% (from 1.4 to 1.95 bln US dollars) during this period and imports from Egypt to the EAEU increased by 11% (from 437 to 489 mln US dollars).
