Brussels, 06/02/2007 (Agence Europe) - European Commission and Egyptian negotiators will begin talks in Cairo on Thursday 8 February on a free trade agreement in agriculture. Commission experts will be in Rabat on Friday 9 February to continue similar talks with Morocco. Negotiations with Morocco, like those with Israel, are far advanced, although it would appear that a number of sensitive points are still up for discussion. Exploratory contacts have been established with Tunisia, but Tunis has not yet finalised its negotiating mandate for these talks, which will be carried on bilaterally, but which came about through the EuroMed regional framework. A roadmap was drawn up in Rabat in April 2005, based on the decisions in the conclusions of the foreign ministers at the Hague (November 2004), and Dublin (May 2004), and the more specific decisions of the EuroMed agriculture ministers meeting in Venice in November 2003. This roadmap set out the lines of a strategy to accelerate liberalisation of trade in agriculture. Top experts are currently defining the stages of the process of reciprocal liberalisation of trade in processed agricultural products and also setting out measures related to non-trade matters (rural development, quality policy etc) as part of the accompanying measures. The trade section will bring in the idea of reciprocity of concessions, although these will be “asymmetrical” to take account of the sensitivity of products for the respective parties. (fb)