Tag Archives: Q&A

I recently met with Mohammed, an Egyptian trader and a 20-year veteran of China. He studied Chinese in Ein Shams University in the early 1980s, before finally settling in China permanently. It was that or become a policeman. Mohammed made a few comments that are worth noting.

First, trade between China and the Middle East has yet to seriously recover from the economic crisis.

Second, Arab traders haven’t suffered from visa restrictions. This is an important point. The fact Arab traders have been able to apply successfully for visas to China, in contrast to Europe and the United States, is one reason why China’s trade with the Middle East has grown so rapidly.

The Gulf’s purchases of foreign agricultural land have grabbed media headlines. And rightly so. The Middle East is the world’s largest regional importer of food. (It’s a little known fact that Egypt imports more wheat than China every year). Eckart Woertz is head of the economics department at the Gulf Research Centre in Dubai, a fellow at Princeton, and produced one of the first comprehensive reports on the issue. He recently attended a conference in New York to speak on the Gulf’s agricultural investments. I was keen to hear his post-conference views.