Cairo proposes new measures for creation of Arab FTZ

Egypt has proposed new measures for the implementation of the Agadir declaration providing for the creation of a free trade zone between Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia.

The Egyptian foreign minister has sent in this context messages to his peers from the four Arab Mediterranean countries.

"These messages are about new measures meant to facilitate the completion of a final version of the accord texts and addenda and prepare the ground for the signing of these texts the soonest," Egyptian news agency "MENA" reports.

The four states signed in the Moroccan Atlantic city of Agadir (south of Casablanca) in 2001 the "Agadir declaration" expressing intention to gradually set up a free trade zone. An implementation agreement of the said declaration was signed last February.

The projected free trade zone, open to other Arab states wishing to join, is designed to help achieve economic integration between the four states, promote the exportation of duty-free goods to the European Union markets in accordance with the bilateral agreements binding each of the four countries to the EU.