Minister activities today 29-10-2018
Minister of Economy and Trade, Raed Khoury, presided this morning a meeting with the presence of Director General, Alia Abbas; the president of the Association of the Dairy Farmers, Engineer Kheir El Jarrah, the president of the National Council for the Lebanese Milk Producers Jack Kallasi in addition to the association and council’ members. Talks reportedly touched the protection of national milk and dairy products.
At the end of the meeting, Kallasi outlined that” the purpose of the meeting is to protect the national milk production knowing the importance of agreements that should be complied with. In this regard, Minister Khoury assured that the applied agreements, whether Mediterranean or Euro- Mediterranean agreements or Arab trade facilitation agreements, contain articles that enable each country to protect their national industries, in particular for milk producers who suffers from the products’ marketing. This meeting is the first of its kind to be held in terms of the protection of national production. Our aim is to protect the production and we stand ready to bear all the related costs; provided to assure necessary and equitable protection for the national production”.
In his turn, the president of the Association of the Dairy Farmers, Engineer Kheir El Jarrah thanked the Minister for this initiative that “made us look forward to improve the condition of the lebanese farmer who sell his milk products below the costs. We look forward to impose consumption fees on various imported dairy products in order to protect this sector and induce the farmers to protect their farms and stay in their villages by providing a long-term protection through imposing consumable fees on all imported products so the farmers can live in dignity.”
Furthermore, Minister Khoury headed a meeting in the presence of General Director of Grains and Sugar beets, Hanna El Amil, and the wheat farmers in North Bekaa and Akkar where talks tackled the wheat issue as well as the negative impact on the crop production of 2018.
To this end, the president of the farmers’ syndicate Youssef Muhieddine declared that talks with Minister Khoury discussed the issue of compensating the wheat farmers who incurred damages in Baalback, Hermel and Akkar governorates. The concerned parties assured that compensation will be settled to the farmers once the crop is delivered in Middle and West Bekaa. In addition, discussions tackled the question of the “weak” wheat quantity estimated around one thousand tons assuring that either those farmers will be added to the list of the damaged farmers in the region of Baalback- Hermel or the Ministry will support the farmers and receive their crops.
Moreover, Caretaker Minister of Economy and Trade, Raed Khoury, met at noon with his Belgian counterpart, Deputy prime minister and Minister of Trade, Consumer Affairs and Energy, Chris Peeters, in presence of Belgian Ambassador to Lebanon, Hubert Cooreman. Talks reportedly touched on the current political and economic situation in the country and the future economic vision for Lebanon; in addition to the means to bolster the bilateral cooperation between Lebanon and Belgium, namely in terms of increasing the lebanese exports to Belgium. Discussions also tackled the organization of training sessions to transfer knowledge in the field of consumer protection, to set policies for prices and administrative reform as well as to support the development of small and medium enterprises.