Brazil’s vice president arrives in Cairo to hold discussions with Egyptian PM, officials

CAIRO – 27 September 2021: Brazil’s Vice President Antônio Hamilton Mourão arrived on Monday in Cairo heading a high-level delegation in an official visit that will last for several days, a Cabinet statement read.

During his visit, Mourão will hold discussions with Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and relevant officials to review means to enhance bilateral relations between Egypt and Brazil in various fields.

Mourão will also attend a number of other meetings and activities during his visit.

Madbouly received Mourão in the Cairo International Airport, the statement said.

The vice president’s visit comes few days after Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met with his Brazilian counterpart Carlos França in New York to discuss ways to advance cooperation between the two countries.

Their meeting came on the sidelines of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

During their meeting, the two top diplomats tackled the joint cooperation in regional and international issues in light of Brazil's occupation of a non-permanent seat of the UN Security Council (UNSC) for the 2022-2023 term.

In 2010, Egypt signed a free trade agreement with the Mercosur countries (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay), and it entered into force on September 1, 2017.

The agreement provides for gradual exemption over several years, leading to full exemption from customs duties imposed on 90 percent of goods exchanged between the two parties, according to several lists attached to the agreement.

Egyptian exports to the Mercosur countries have jumped by 115 percent since the agreement entered into force in 2017, according to the Assistant Minister of Trade and Industry for Economic Affairs, and the supervisor of the foreign trade sector and trade agreements, Ibrahim El-Sigini earlier in September.