Maher signs Egypt-EU partnership agreement in Luxembourg

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher will sign the Egyptian-European Union (EU) agreement on Monday in Luxembourg with the attendance of 15 EU's Foreign Minister.

Diplomatic sources at the foreign ministry said signing the agreement is a major step towards building a huge economic bloc in the Mediterranean by 2010.

" Under the agreement, a free trade area will be set up to exempt the Egyptian exports from customs duties. The Egyptian-European partnership will boost Egypt's agricultural exports," said Youssef Wali, Deputy Premier and Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation.

The agreement will bring about a leap for export of some agricultural crops to Europe like potatoes, citrus fruits, strawberry, dates, peanuts and flowers, he said, affirming that agro-exports to Europe will, by virtue of this agreement, increase by 185-250 %.

He added that the agreement has already helped export Egyptian agricultural products to Europe for the first time like strawberry, flowers and cabbage.

Saad Nassar, Head of the Agricultural Research Center, said the agreement provides for upping potato exports to 250,000 tons in three years' time and allowing of 60,000 tons of oranges, 3,000 tons of flowers, 1500 tons of strawberry and 1500 tons of cabbage as well as quotas of dates, peanuts and molasses estimated at 350,000 tons.

"The agreement involved all-year-long exemptions for several agricultural commodities exported to Europe like tangerine, grape fruit, lemon, medicinal and aromatic herbs, palm dates, guava, mango, dried vegetables and some types of peanuts," he said.

"It also involved prolonging the season of export of some customs-exempted agro-products to Europe like grapes, strawberry, water lemon, honeydew melon and asparagus," he added.