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Egypt

Under George Bush’s administration, in 2003, the US Trade Representative is said to have ’punished’ Egypt by suspending all overtures towards an FTA when Egypt withdrew its support for a US dispute against the European Union on trade in genetically modified crops at the WTO. This lasted until late 2004, when the overtures started picking up again. However, the US froze FTA talks after allegations of fraud and corruption surrounding Egypt’s December 2005 elections and they have not restarted since.

In the meantime, the US brokered a deal between Egypt and Israel to set up a ’qualifying industrial zone’ between the two countries, which angered both Egyptians and Arab neighbours. In 2009, under Obama’s administration, US and Egyptian trade officials signed a Plan for a Strategic Partnership which pledged to follow “a program of intensified U.S.-Egyptian cooperation on economic, trade, and investment issues”. But there have been no substantive moves towards negotiating a bilateral FTA between the two countries.

The European Union has had a preferential trade agreement with Egypt since 2001, which it hopes to upgrade in the process of achieving a fullblown EU-Mediterranean FTA.

Egypt signed a bilateral FTA with Turkey in December 2005, and another with EFTA in 2007. In 2010 it signed an FTA with Mercosur. Regionally, it is party to the Agadir Agreement, GAFTA and COMESA. Cairo is currently negotiating or considering FTAs with Russia, India and Indonesia.

last update: May 2012
photo: Hossam el-Hamalawy/CC BY 2.0


FTA... at what cost?
At a recent AmCham gathering, discussions with a US congressional staffer made clear that if FTA negotiations were not launched soon, Egypt would have to wait until at least 2010.
When the time is right
"The time is not right." US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez’s terse statement summed up his answers to repeated questions as to why negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) between Egypt and the US appear to have been abandoned.
Egypt against conditional deals
An Egyptian official yesterday said that the timing of signing a free trade agreement (FTA) "wasn’t appropriate from the Egyptian and US points of view".
Cairo angered by US trade talks freeze
Rachid Mohamed Rachid, Egypt’s trade and industry minister, criticised Washington yesterday for mixing business with politics in its decision to freeze negotiations on a free trade agreement.
Rice: Timing off for free trade with Egypt
The United States will not seek a free trade agreement with Egypt this year because the "timing" is not right, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.
Time not right for US-Egypt trade pact: Rice
The time is not right for the United States and Egypt to begin negotiations on a free- trade agreement, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview on Friday with Arab media.
Freedom isn’t free
Disarray on the political side of the house casts the side of free-trade talks with the United States into question.
Trading diplomacy
This week the issue of a potential US- Egyptian free trade agreement (FTA) emerged back in the spotlight. Reports coming from Washington suggest that the Bush administration has once again put on hold Egypt’s long aspired to dreams of a bilateral FTA.
Egypt-US free trade deal at risk: US official
Egypt risks missing its chance to clinch a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States if talks do not kick off in the coming weeks, an official with the US Congress said.
PhRMA statement on US-Egypt free trade agreement
PhRMA believes that a strong FTA is in the interests of Egyptian patients as well as the business community.