Minister of Commerce, Tarek Kabeel met Tuesday with French Minister of State for Foreign Trade, Matthias Fekl to ease participation of Egyptian companies in French exhibitions, Al Bawaba News reported. Both sides talked about the opportunities for cooperation with respect to the diversification of Egyptian exports to France and benefiting from the French experience in this field. The two sides discussed ways to ease the participation of small and medium-sized Egyptian companies in the French exhibitions, such as Sial, Maison and Objet exhibitions. Kabeel highlighted means to encourage French companies to take advantage of Egypt's strategic geographical position to export its goods to African and Arab countries. He pointed out that this could be achieved in the framework of the free trade agreement between Egypt and the three African economic blocs, Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), Southern African Development Community (SADC) and East African Community (EAC).