Meetings on Arab free trade zone start tomorrow in Cairo

Meetings of the Arab social and economic council for following up means of implementing the greater Arab free trade zone are to start tomorrow at the Arab League's headquarters.

Abd El-Rahman El-Sahibani, the assistant secretary general for economic affairs in the Arab League, asserted that the number of member states in the Arab free trade zone reached 15, adding that the volume of the foreign trade within this group forms the basic part of the foreign Arab trade and inter-Arab trade.

The Arab states that joined the free trade zone are Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates and that there are four countries that signed the agreement but have not taken procedures to implement it, which are Sudan, Yemen, Palestine and Somalia.