Egypt and South Africa signed an agreement to hand over criminals taking refuge in their respective countries but kept quiet on a dumping dispute, as they wound up two days of meetings in Cairo on Monday October 22.
Neither Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher nor his South African counterpart Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma referred to the issue of sub-standard Egyptian imports to South Africa in a closing press conference.
South African foreign ministry officials earlier said Pretoria was mulling anti-dumping measures against Egypt after South African companies complained about the quality of imports. The subject was omitted from a joint statement issued at the end of the fifth session of their bilateral commission, although the issue of "flooding" the South African market had been listed on the official agenda for the talks.
"The two ministers expressed their satisfaction with ... progress made in various fields of cooperation," the statement said, adding that they had discussed ways of increasing two-way trade. No details were available on the accord on exchanging criminals.
Egypt is awaiting the extradition of a number of alleged Islamist extremists from abroad since a worldwide campaign against terrorism was launched in the wake of the September 11 blitz on the United States. Egypt fought a harsh battle during the 1990s against Islamic militants who mounted a string of terror attacks against government interests, including foreign tourism. — (AFP, Cairo)
@ Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
