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356420
Fri, 02/06/2015 - 10:33
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Workgroup on Egypt-EEU free-trade zone to start working in spring - presidential aide

MOSCOW, February 5. /TASS/. The workgroup set to create a free-trade zone between the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) and Egypt will start working this spring, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said on Thursday. The turnover between the two states [Russia and Egypt - TASS] is actively diversified and boosted right now, Ushakov said. "Probably, an agreement on creating a free-trade zone between Egypt and member-countries of the Eurasian Economic Union will trigger it. A decision has been made to create a research group, which will study this process, and its first meeting is planned for March-April this year in Cairo," presidential aide said. The turnover between Russia and Egypt reached $4.6 billion in the first eleven months of 2014, which was an 80% increase year-on-year. Ushakov said that such significant growth was backed by Russian energy and grain exports to Egypt. Presidential aid added that Egypt is the first-biggest importer of Russian wheat, which meets around 40% of the country’s demand. Also, there’s been a significant rise in imports of Egypt’s agricultural produce to Russia. On the other hand, the amount of mutual capital investment is not big yet, Ushakov said. In the first half of 2014, Egypt invested $10 million into Russia, while Russia invested only $2 million in Egypt. Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) is an international organization for regional economic integration. The treaty establishing the union was formally signed by three states, which were part of the former Soviet Union: Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia. Agreements to enlarge the EEU to Armenia and Kyrgyzstan were signed in October and December 2014, respectively. Read more

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