CAIRO, Sept 22, 2018 (MENA) – The volume of trade exchange between Egypt and the US reached $3.8 billion in the first seven months of 2018, an increase by 29.2%, compared to $2.9 billion during the same period of 2017, Egyptian Trade and Industry Minister Amr Nassar has revealed. In a meeting with Egyptian members of the US-Egypt Business Council (USEBC), Nassar said that the US topped the list of importing countries for Egyptian products over the same period, with a total amount of $832 million. The meeting, took up final preparations for the expected visit by the USEBC Egyptian members to Washington in late September to discuss ways of cementing economic ties with the US in the different fields, the Trade and Industry Ministry said in a press statement late Friday. The two sides probed underway preparations by the American Chamber of Commerce and the USEBC to receive a 60-member US business delegation to probe the available investment opportunities in the Egyptian market, the statement added. During the meeting, Nassar reviewed with the USEBC Egyptian members a number of key files, including negotiations on the US-Egypt Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) and ways to increase bilateral trade exchange and investment projects over the coming phase, the statement read. The Egyptian market is a key destination for the US investments, as it represents a main marketing hub for Africa and the Middle East, the statement quoted Nassar as saying. The $2.4 billion US investments in Egypt cover the sectors of industry, services, construction, financing, agriculture, telecommunications and information technology, he added. The US investments in Egypt account for 35.4% of direct US investments in Africa and 46.2% in the Middle East, he noted. For his part, Head of the USEBC Omar Mahana said the visit of the Egyptian delegation to Washington aims at elevating to higher levels economic, trade, industrial and investment cooperation. It is also meant to deepen communication channels between the two countries' business communities and turn the bilateral strategic relations into joint investment projects, in addition to making good use of the huge US market in raising Egypt's exports, Mahana added.
