Egypt and EU sign deal on farm goods

Brussels: European Union negotiators have initialled a deal to liberalise trade in most farm and fishery products with Egypt, the most important Middle East market for EU produce, the European Commission said on Saturday. The agreement will give EU exporters free and immediate access to the Egyptian market for around 90 per cent of agriculture and fisheries products, the commission said in a statement. Egypt will continue to apply existing conditions to imports of tobacco, wines and spirits and pig meat but will halve its duties on confectionery, chocolate, pasta and bakery products. Bilateral figures EU exports of these products to Egypt were worth almost 600 million euros ($942 million) between 2005 and 2007, compared with an equivalent 540 million euros of Egyptian exports to EU markets over the same period, the statement... [read full story]