SAN JUAN: Mercosur, a South American trade bloc that groups big agricultural exporters Brazil and Argentina, signed a free-trade deal with Egypt on Monday, the Egyptian Ministry of Trade and Industry said. The agreement is expected to double the volume of trade between Egypt and the Mercosur countries. “The agreement will allow preferential treatment for Egyptian products entering the markets of Latin America and will reduce the cost of Egyptian imports for key items including sugar, meat and soy oil,” the ministry said in a statement. Egyptian Minister of trade and Industry Rachid Mohamed Rachid said the agreement was “a great opportunity to facilitate expansion of trade between Africa and Latin America.” On the other hand, the agreement opens up a market of 76 million consumers to the trade bloc, which also includes Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru. Mercosur's member states also export cars and autoparts. "This opens new opportunities for products that until now we didn't sell (to Egypt), such as cars, autoparts, medicines, paper products, chicken, fruit, among others," Argentinean Industry Minister Debora Giorgi said in the northern city of San Juan, where a Mercosur summit is taking place. The trade bloc is also negotiating trade pacts with Jordan, Morocco and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which groups Gulf states including Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The deal with Egypt took six years to wrap up. Egypt is the world's biggest importer of wheat and Argentina is among the leading global exporters of the grain, although it did not export wheat to the North African country last year, according to official data. Egypt is a significant buyer of Argentine corn and soy products. Egypt's exports to Brazil, the largest economy in Latin America, totaled $87.7 million in 2009, while its imports came to $1.53 billion, the Egyptian Trade Ministry reported.
