CAIRO - The US expressed interest in backing the Egyptian economy and offering to help Egyptian manufacturers and exporters benefit from special import programmes in the United States. Addressing attendees at a meeting in Cairo of the American Chamber of Commerce, US Ambassador to Egypt Anne W. Patterson said the US wants to ensure more Egyptian companies benefit from the US Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), which offers duty-free access to the US market. “Our goal is to help Egyptian businesses to increase and diversify their exports to the United States, using GSP and other programmes, as a way to increase prosperity and employment in Egypt,” Patterson said. “The United States will do all it can to help Egypt develop its private sector and reach its full economic potential, building a partnership based on mutual interest and mutual respect that is stronger than ever before.” The expression of US interest in offering help for the Egyptian economy came hours after International Co-operation Minister Fayza Abul Naga said on Sunday that USAID had given unlicensed NGOs, including some American organisations, $40 million in the months that followed the Egyptian revolution, in what she described as "political funding". A few days ago, a local newspaper, Al-Masry Al-Youm, quoted an unidentified source who said the US put pressure on Arab governments to stop a promised package of financial aid to Egypt. The source added that the US administration was angry with the ruling military council here, because it did nothing to stop the rise of the Islamists. The military council, according to the same source quoted by Al-Masry Al-Youm, reacted by launching a crackdown on the NGOs, some of them American, charging them with receiving funding from foreign governments illegally. The giovernment denied such a charge, saying that the crackdown on NGOs was only a matter of judicial procedures. But the Al-Masry Al-Youm report coincided with statements by the Prime Minister of the National Salvation Government, in which he said that Arab governments that pledged financial support to Egypt after the revolution have given the country nothing but "lip service". The US then reiterated its intent to help the Egyptian economy grow. “The US wants its trade preference programmes to work for Egypt, helping its economy to grow,” said Deputy Assistant US Trade Representative Bill Jackson while visiting Egypt lately. “Our goal is to help Egyptian businesses to increase and diversify their exports to the United States, using GSP and other programmes.” The US GSP programme eliminates duties on over 3,400 products entering the US market from Egypt and other developing countries. In 2010, Egypt's exports to the US under the GSP programme amounted to $51 million, including many agricultural and manufactured products. In yet one more indication of US keenness to forge closer ties with Egypt, US Undersecretary of State for Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs Robert D. Hormats arrived in Cairo yesterday for talks with Egyptian officials.
