Egypt will take advantage of opportunity to sell to Russia

The size of trade exchange between Egypt and Russia in 2011 reached $2.3 billion

Egypt seeks to sign a free trade agreement with Russia and increase its exports to the country that has recently become the 156^th member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), an official at the ministry of industry and foreign trade has said.

Egypt declared its approval of Russia’s joining the WTO two years ago, saying that it hopes this removes many obstacles that face Egyptian exports to the Russian markets, the Middle East News Agency has reported head of the ministry’s trade agreements sector Saeed Abdallah.

The approval of every WTO member is required for any new country to join the organisation. Egypt has been a member of the WTO since 1995. Egypt aims at increasing its exports to Russia, Abdallah stated.

Negotiations have been ongoing for two years to make a free trade agreement between Egypt and Russia but the latter’s preoccupation with preparing its portfolio to join the WTO has slowed these negotiations down, he added.

Increasing Egyptian exports to Russia requires taking some procedures. These procedures include reducing the transportation cost and working hard on producing goods that match the Russian market’s specifications with a lower price to ensure it can compete with other goods, the official said.

The size of trade exchange between Egypt and Russia in 2011 reached $2.3 billion.