Libyan and Italian business delegations have agreed that all bilateral trade will henceforth travel across the Mediterranean in rowboats, with no engine, sail or cargo ship permitted on the route, the organisers announced at the close of a business forum in Tripoli.
Under the arrangement, 312 volunteer oarsmen from the Libyan port of Zuwara and 290 from the Sicilian town of Mazara del Vallo will pull cargo between the two shores in shifts of eleven hours. Exporters on both sides have already loaded the first consignment of olive oil, dates and ceramic tiles into forty-two wooden boats, which the Italian chamber of commerce has classified as a strategic maritime asset.
The minister for economic affairs, Abdulhamid al-Suqutri, told delegates that the initiative reflected a simple reality. "Italy is our first commercial partner, and a partner of that rank deserves to be reached on foot-powered transport," he said. "Anything faster would be a betrayal of the relationship."
Port authorities in both countries have since closed their container terminals, reassigning the cranes to the construction of a new rowing dock at the midpoint of the strait. Italian dockworkers have begun training on a purpose-built rowing tank in Palermo, where the daily regime includes four hours of stroke practice before lunch.
Asked how the rowboats would cope with the summer winds, the chairman of the Italo-Libyan business council replied calmly that the crews had been instructed to wait for them to drop.