Lebanese- Egyptian talks in support of economic cooperation

The Lebanese prime minister Rafic Hariri called for signing a joint agreement between Egypt and Lebanon with the aim of increasing the volume of trade exchange to half a billion dollars and to remove all customs barriers and facilitate movement of goods between the two states.

Hariri who arrived in Cairo on Tuesday in a two-day visit to Egypt, to discuss means of enhancing trade and economic relations, said that such an agreement will permit in its preliminary phase to export Egyptian goods to Lebanon at a value of $ 300 million annually.

The agreement allows Lebanon exporting goods worth $ 200 million to Egypt and a gradual increase is to be made on the volume of trade exchange between the two states.

Worthy mentioning that the two sides discussed measures to facilitate the flow of the trade movement between Egypt and Lebanon so as to increase the volume of trade exchange between the two states and remove bureaucratic obstacles and impediments of exchanging agricultural crops between Lebanon and Egypt.

In a meeting with the Egyptian business men, the Lebanese prime minister expressed his regret over the small volume of trade exchange between Cairo and Beirut, noting that the volume of Lebanon's annual imports from the European Union is estimated at $ 5 billion, whereas the exchanges between Egypt and Lebanon do no exceed $ 200 million.

Hariri said that the year 2005 will witness the signing of an agreement that provides for investing the Egyptian natural gas via the pipeline extending from Egypt to Jordan via Syria and then Lebanon to Europe.