Minister of Trade and Industry Tarek Kabil announced that Egyptian exports to European Union (EU) markets achieved a significant increase of 24% during the first 11 months of 2017, reaching €7.5bn, compared to€ 6.3bn during the same period of 2016. He continued that Egyptian imports from the EU decreased during the first 11 months of last year by 3%, amounting to €18.2bn, compared to €18.8bn during the same period of 2016. This came within Kabil's discussion session with EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström on the sidelines of Egypt's participation in the tenth meeting of trade ministers of the Union For the Mediterranean (UfM) countries, that is held in Brussels, after an eight-year Egyptian hiatus. The session dealt with the future of economic cooperation between the two sides and ways to enhance trade exchange and joint investments between Egypt and the European Union during the next period. Kabil pointed out that trade deficit between Egypt and the EU in the first 11 months of last year fell by 16% to reach €10.7bn compared with €12.76bn in the same period of 2016. Kabil assured that EU is the first investor in Egypt, contributing 75% of the foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows in Egypt during the last period. The minister pointed out that the EU remains the most important export market for Egypt, accounting 22.7%of Egypt's exports to foreign markets. The EU is a political and economic union consisting of 28 member-states that are located primarily in Europe, including Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the UK.
