In other auto industry news, the House of Representatives’ Industry Committee will begin discussing the automotive directive next week, parliamentary sources tell Al Borsa. The committee plans to invite industry leaders to speak in closed session, said committee member Mohamed El Zeiny. In a surprising development, Hussein Moustafa, CEO of the Egyptian Automobile Manufacturers Association (EAMA), has come out against the law, telling Al Borsa that the law favors some in the industry over others. He criticized a provision that would tax locally manufactured automobiles at 7%, saying the rate is too low in view of customs on some imported cars coming out to 10%. Moustafa also objects to a levy of 0.5% of sales that would be imposed on the industry to run a fund to develop the industry. Conditions for companies to obtain aid from the fund — such as growing exports to be 125% larger than the company’s import bill within eight years — are also too stringent, he says. He also complains that EAMA was not consulted in the drafting of the law. That strikes us as off: The Trade and Industry Ministry has held several meetings which included the chairman of EAMA Hassan Suleiman, the most recent being on the law’s executive regulations.