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Iraq-Egypt Trade Increases by Big Margin: Iraqi Minister
The trade between Iraq and Egypt has increased greatly, with its volume exceeding 2 billion US dollars since the United Nations oil-for-food program was put into effect in 1996, Iraqi Trade Minister Mohammad Mehdi Salah said Sunday.
Egypt has become Iraq's third largest trade partner in the world, following Russia and France, Salah said in a statement carried by the official Iraqi News Agency (INA).
Salah made the remark during a ceremony welcoming the visiting Egyptian Public Enterprises Minister Mokhtar Khatab, who headed a 200-member delegation and arrived in Baghdad on Sunday.
The Egyptian delegation, including representatives from over 150 Egyptian companies, will organize an Egyptian Products Fair in Baghdad, the INA said.
Regarding the free trade agreement signed between the two countries in January, Khatab said that the pact will take effect as soon as the Egyptian People's Assembly (parliament) approves it.
Khatab expressed the belief that the agreement, the first of its kind in the Arab world, will be approved soon, the INA said.
The agreement was signed in Cairo by Egyptian Prime Minister Atef Obeid and visiting Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan on January 18. Ramadan was the highest-ranking Iraqi official to visit Egypt since 1991.
Egypt and Iraq, who severed relations in 1991, effectively resumed diplomatic relations at the level of charge d'affaires in November last year.
The two countries have improved trade ties since the implementation of the U.N. oil-for-food program in 1996 when sanctions-hit Iraq was allowed to sell oil in return for UN- monitored imports of food, oil and other basic necessities.
Iraq has been under stringent international sanctions since it invaded its neighbor Kuwait in 1990.
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