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Iraq Ratifies Free Trade Agreement with Egypt
Iraq on Wednesday ratified the free trade agreement signed with Egypt on January 18, the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported.
The decision was made at a meeting of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council, Iraq's supreme power organization, the INA said.
A short announcement following the meeting, which was chaired by President Saddam Hussein, said that the free trade agreement will help promote "Arab economic unity and mutual prosperity."
Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan paid a visit to Cairo on January 16 and signed the agreement with Egyptian Prime Minister Atef Obeid two days later on establishing the free trade zone between the two Arab countries.
Iraq has also signed similar agreements with Syria and Tunisia.
The free trade agreement is the first step towards the establishment of an Arab common market. But it is largely symbolic at the present stage because its implementation will only begin after the U.N. sanctions against Iraq are removed.
Iraq has been under the decade-old, sweeping United Nations sanctions following its invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
Egypt and Iraq, who broke off ties in 1991 and had since operated interests sections in the Indian embassies in each other's capital, effectively resumed diplomatic relations in November at the level of charge d'affaires.??
The two countries have improved trade ties since the implementation of a memorandum of understanding on trade in 1996 when the UN launched the oil-for-food program, which allows Iraq to sell oil to buy food, medicine and other necessities.??
Egypt has become Iraq's largest trade partner in the Arab world and the fifth largest in the world, after Russia, China, France and India.
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