Egypt, US, Israel to discuss QIZ program next month: Egypt will push to reduce the mandatory Israeli content in goods exported to the US under the Qualified Industrial Zones (QIZ) program to 8% instead of the current 10% during a meeting with US and Israeli officials next month, head of the Trade and Industry Ministry’s QIZ unit Ashraf El Rabie said, Al Mal reports. The ministry also sent a joint letter with Israel appealing to Washington to resolve Egypt’s “crisis” with Disneyland, which banned imports from 28 Egyptian textile manufacturers earlier this year over concerns about labor conditions in Egypt, according to Rabie. Trade and Industry Minister Tarek Kabil had been lobbying since April to bring down the Israeli content quota and to resolve the issue with Disneyland.

Rabie also called on Egyptian businesses to take greater advantage of the QIZ agreement and put aside their personal feelings about Israel, the newspaper reports. As we noted earlier this week, the three countries are currently in talks to expand the program to include tech companies, since ready-made garments and food products account for the lion’s share of industries benefiting from the agreement.