Egypt's Trade and Industry Minister Tareq Kabil said on Friday that Egyptian commodity exports to the European Union (EU) market made big growth over the past year. Commodity exports reached about 8.1 billion euros in 2017, up from 6.7 billion euros in the previous year, marking a 21 percent increase. In a statement on Friday, Kabil said that Egyptian exports to the EU market surpassing the 8 billion euros mark represents an important step in achieving a qualitative leap in the level of trade and investment relations between Egypt and the EU. He added that the large increase in Egyptian exports to these markets contributed to the growth in the volume of trade exchange between Egypt and the EU during the past year, to reach about 28 billion euros, compared to 27.3 billion euros in 2016. "The European Union is the first economic and commercial partner to Egypt, as the EU is the most important export market for Egypt, and accounts for 22.7% of Egyptian exports to foreign markets," Kabil said. Meanwhile, the first undersecretary of the Trade and Industry Ministry, Ahmed Antar, said that the development of trade between Egypt and the EU crowned the efforts of the Egyptian trade representation offices in EU countries as well as the promotion of campaigns organized by the ministry to market Egyptian products at specialized trade fairs. He pointed out that the most important EU countries importing from Egypt during the past year, include Italy, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom and Bulgaria. Antar said that the exports which made increases to the EU in 2017 are: steel, aluminum, and their products, fertilizers, chemical goods, agricultural products, engineering goods, plastics, and its products, building materials, textiles, garments and leather products. Source: Al-Masry Al-Youm
