Ganzouri report to Mubarak on Egypt - Euro partnership problems

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak received a report from Prime Minister Kamal El-Ganzouri dealing with the problems obstructing the final framework for the economic partnership agreement with European Union, which has negatives reflections on the Egyptian economy and threatens more limits and measures against Egyptian exports under the claim of protecting EU states from product dumping.

The Egyptian government informed the European Commission about postponing the coming session of partnership negotiations between the two sides to an unspecified date after the most recent round of talks last month failed to remove the obstacles jeopardizing the partnership.

The European side of the partnership negotiations imposed conditions on exporting agricultural products, notably on potatoes, including specifying the shares that can be exported from Egypt into the European market.

Moreover, six European countries lodged claims in which they accused Egypt of flooding their markets with textiles, while Denmark and Finland refrained from importing potatoes altogether, and all this reflected on the negotiations of partnership agreement.

Meanwhile, an Egyptian official source confirmed that his country does not seek to escalate the problems and enter into a confrontation but expressed resentment toward the European polices.