The Arab world is now the European Economic Community’s largest trading partner, accounting for more than 13 percent of all EEC exports and 20 percent of all EEC imports.
Lord Selsdon, advisor to the Midland Bank Group, told the Euro-Arab business cooperation symposium in Montreux this week that unless there was closer financial cooperation between the Arab world and Western Europe there would be financial chaos. Development projects of major international significance would fail to get off the ground and “money will be poured down the drain.”
Arab world development plans now show an average annual expenditure in excess of $70 billion. When expansion resumes in the industrial world, there may not be enough capital to go round, he warned.
Despite the enormous agricultural potential of many Arab countries, they imported twice as much food from the EEC than they exported. Food was already a world problem and could become a particular problem for Arab countries unless they increase their own production.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
