Kolkata, June 03: India and Egypt are likely to enter into a free trading arrangement by the end of the current financial year, according to joint secretary, Ministry of Commerce, M V Sastry. Speaking at the two-day export summit organised by CII on Tuesday, Sastry said, "Discussions on free trade arrangement with Egypt is in an advanced stage. Hopefully this will be concluded this financial year".

He said countries like Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait were also keen on having similar free trade arrangements with India.
Sastry added that the government was making an in-depth study on how to promote exports of services. During 2002-03, the country exported services valued at $ 20 billion.
Talking on the impact of rupee appreciating against the US dollar on India's export earnings, the director general of foreign trade, L Mansingh, said it was too early to assess that.
However, he said it was unlikely that India's export earnings will suffer as the rupee was appreciating only against the dollar but not vis-a-vis any other hard currency. Bureau Report