Starting in 2021, Egypt and the UK are exchanging goods according to a new Association Agreement; this was signed in early December 2020. The agreement replaces the Egypt-EU Association Agreement that previously governed relations between the two countries, but had to be discarded with the exit of the UK from the EU. In the absence of such an agreement, both parties would have reverted to Most Favoured Nation (MFN) terms of trade, she said, explaining that this would have meant that Egypt would have imposed an average of 19 per cent tariffs on goods imported from the UK while the UK would have imposed an average 5.7 per cent tariffs. The UK is one of Egypt’s major trading partners, with total bilateral trade in 2019 reaching 3.6 billion pounds sterling. UK exports to Egypt accounted for 2.3 billion pounds sterling.
The new agreement covers trade in goods, including provisions on technical matters like rules of origin, preferential treatment, and quotas. It also covers trade in services, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, intellectual property and government procurement. While Egypt has already ratified the agreement, the UK is in the process of doing so and could finish in February, said Paul Mullard, senior trade policy advisor at the UK’s Department of International Trade. The agreement provides an opportunity to enhance relations on both sides. Egyptian agricultural exports have a high potential in the UK market, with UK statistics showing that UK imports of fruit and vegetables were 11.5 billion pounds sterling in 2019 vs exports of 1.3 billion pounds sterling. Egypt’s exports of fruit and vegetables were around 160 million pounds sterling in 2019.