Egyptian cotton has unique properties. It is of very high quality and spinnability in comparison to other cottons produced elsewhere in the world. During the 1st Euro-Mediterranean Textile & Clothing Supply Chain Integration Conference, in May 2005 in Cairo, dozens of cotton specialists, textile professors and industrialists considered what Egypt should do to make better use of its cotton in order to become a truly important player in the world textile business. Parallel to this Conference, the 6th Egytex Fair, organised by the Sahara Group, was held in Cairo on May 9-11. Except for a handful of Indian suppliers of yarns and fabrics and one Chinese manufacturer of sewing machines, Shandong Conglin Sewing Equipment Co. Ltd, the Fair was a purely Middle East commercial event, with Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian exhibitors. Business was rather weak, though a group of Russians had been invited to the Fair and some big American importers, e.g. Standard Textile, from Cincinnati were looking for QIZ-certified suppliers. QIZ (Qualified Industrial Zones), a trade agreement, signed in December 2004 by the US, Israel and Egypt, allows Egyptian products to enter the US at zero tariff, on condition that 11.7% of the product input is of Israeli origin.
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