The United States-Egypt Business Council of the US Chamber of Commerce has held meetings with senior members of Congress to push for commencement of negotiations on a US-Egypt free trade agreement (FTA).

The meetings, held together with representatives from the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Egypt, highlighted the importance of expanding commercial partnerships between the two countries, to help facilitate greater economic stability in Egypt while boosting American exports to Egypt’s growing market of over 80m consumers.

The Congressional representatives were led by Senator John McCain (R – Arizona), who confirmed that, “given the historic partnership the US and Egypt share, it is essential that we continue to expand our bilateral commercial relations. By working towards this goal, we can begin to resolve the issue of Egypt’s looming debt crisis while creating jobs for the Egyptian people and our own citizens here in the US.”

Representatives from the AmCham delegation emphasized that simply announcing that the US and Egypt plan to begin FTA negotiations would have a profound impact on the confidence of foreign and domestic investors in Egypt’s marketplace.

The negotiation of an FTA between the two countries would go beyond previous official indications that the initial step in encouraging additional bilateral trade would include the seeking by both the US and Egyptian governments of an increase to Egypt’s duty-free exports to the US market under the US Generalized System of Preferences programme.

May 1, 2012

Source: Tax News

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