Berlin's forum probes doubling Arab-German trade

Arab and German officials and economic operators are holding here their sixth economic encounter to look into ways to double trade exchanges between Arab countries and Germany.

"Arab-German cooperation is ever progressing, said secretary general of the German-Arab chamber of commerce and industry who cited statistics showing that the volume of trade has doubled in the last five years to reach 61.7 billion Euro in 2002.

He also hoped that the forum would turn German-Arab cooperation into partnership and diversify Arab world exports that consist mainly of unprocessed goods and hydrocarbons.

Between 2001 and 2002, Arab exports to Germany declined by 9% (from 7.7 billion Euro to 6.8 billion Euro) while German exports grew by 5% (from 14.1 billion Euro to 14.8 billion). Saudi Arabia is Germany's top customer (3.4 billion Euro) while Libya is the European country's top supplier (1.6 billion Euro), according to 2002 statistics.

In the same year, Morocco imported from Germany 726.2 million Euro-worth of goods and exported a 548.4 million Euro.