Egypt and the EFTA States successfully concluded their free trade negotiations in Cairo on 31 October 2006. The Delegations were headed by Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr. Rachid M. Rachid, and State Secretary for Economic Affairs of Switzerland, Mr. Jean-Daniel Gerber.
The Parties aim at signing the EFTA-Egypt Free Trade Agreement in Spring 2007, after completion of the legal review of the agreed texts. The FTA with Egypt will be EFTA’s eighth such agreement with a Mediterranean country, thus significantly extending the scope of application of the pan-Euro-Mediterranean cumulation system in which both Egypt and the EFTA States participate, together with 39 other European and Mediterranean partner countries.
In 2005, the EFTA States and Egypt traded goods worth USD 413,140 mio.