CAIRO, March 18, 2018 - The Minister of Trade and Industry, Tarek Qabil, left Cairo on Sunday for Brussels to participate in the 10th Union for the Mediterranean Trade Ministerial Conference to discuss means of bilateral trade between the 15 Mediterranean countries and the 28 European Union (EU) members. The Conference, which will start on Tuesday, is expected to develop initiatives to facilitate and increase trade and investment flows, in order to enhance and strengthen the mutually-beneficial economic integration process in the Mediterranean region. The meeting will address several trade-related priority areas and propose actions in the fields of conformity assessment and acceptance of industrial products (ACAAs) and the fight against illicit trade and counterfeiting, among others. The meeting will discuss boosting the current free trade agreement and the intratrade co-operation through the expansion of the geographical area benefiting from Agadir Agreement. The discussions also will tackle the possibility of launching a mechanism for facilitating the investment in the Euro-Mediterranean region by creating an online platform showing statistics on trade volumes and tax tariffs. The minister is to due to make a series of meetings with EU officials and members on the sidelines of the conference.
