Saudi - Egyptian customs duties reductions of 40 percent the first year

The Egyptian - Saudi high joint committee is due to hold its meeting in Cairo in the middle of the coming month under the chairmanship of the Egyptian and Saudi foreign ministers.

During the meeting, the two sides are to endorse an agreement to establish a free trade zone between Saudi Arabia and Egypt, that will substitute for the commercial part of the agreement for technical, investment, commercial and economic cooperation signed between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, whose work has been stopped.

The new agreement aims at liberating commercial exchange between the two states over five years, and the agreement is due to be implemented at the beginning of the coming year.

In the first year, customs duties will be reduced by 40% from the customs duty applied between the two countries on products and goods according to the plan for beginning the agreement.

In the second year the fees will be reduced by an additional 20%, then by 10% in each of the fourth and fifth years, ending in 2004.