Israel, Egypt and US will sign a QIZ agreement next week

Mr. Ehud Olmert, Israel’s Minister of Industry Trade and Labor, will sign a QIZ (Qualified Industrial Zone) agreement with Egypt and US, next week (14.12) in Cairo. Mr. Olmert will head a deligation of industrialists which will arrive to Cairo.
 
Mr. Olmert responded that the agreement is a breakthrough in Egypt-Israel Bilateral trade and should significly increase the Israeli export to Egypt and the cooperation between the business comunities in both countries. He added that the QIZ agreement will be the first signed agreement with Egypt since the signing of the peace agreement in March 1979.
 
Last week, while meeting with US Trade Representative Mr. Robert Zoellick, Mr. Olmert concluded understandings on the QIZ agreement with the US and later on, last week, Mr. Zoellick and the Egyptian Minister of Foreign Trade have subsequently reached a QIZ agreement between US and Egypt.
 
This Weekend Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Trade, Mr. Rashid Muhamad Rashid, has contacted Mr. Olmert and officialy invited him to come next week to Cairo to sign the QIZ agreement.
 
Since the outbreak of the intifada in 2000, Israeli trade with Egypt has fallen from $60 million a year to $25 million. The Israeli foreign trade administration predicts that Israeli export to Egypt will grow by $50 million in the first year after the QIZ agreement comes into effect.