Egypt, Palestine make plans to boost economic ties
A Palestinian delegation to Egypt discussed ways to boost cooperation in the fields of oil, economy and trade as Palestinians work to sever economic ties with Israel.
Shortly after the Palestinian delegation's return from Egypt, Palestinian Minister of Agriculture Riyad Attari received a call from his Egyptian counterpart Izzedine Abu Stet. According to Palestinian government spokesman Ibrahim Milhem, the Egyptian official thanked his Palestinian counterpart for a successful visit and expressed his willingness to accelerate the importation of Palestinian dates to Egypt.
Milhem, who participated in the visit, told Al-Monitor that the three-day meetings that included 11 cabinet ministers were “warm and highly successful.”
Cairo is the third Arab capital after Amman and Baghdad a large Palestinian governmental delegation has visited in the last three months as part of efforts to economically delink Palestine from Israel and strengthen Palestinian-Arab economic relations.
Milhem told Al-Monitor that the Egyptian government agreed to a number of requests to accelerate economic relations. “Both sides agreed to do what is needed to improve and speed up economic relations, including easing travel restrictions to Palestinian businessmen and country of origin agreements.” These agreements ensure that products smuggled in from one country can't be labelled as from another.
