Trade Agreements

Egypt and the 15 European Union Member States signed a partnership agreement on June 25, 2001, in Brussels to gradually establish a free trade area over a transitional period not to exceed 12 years from the entry into force of the Agreement. Presidential Decree No. 335/2002 was issued approving the establishment of an institution of an Egyptian - EU partnership through the EuroMediterranean Agreement. - The People’s Assembly of Egypt ratified the Association Agreement with the EU in 2003. It has also been ratified by the European Parliament, and the parliaments of EU Member States. - Accordingly, the Egypt - EU Association Agreement entered into force on January 1, 2004.

The Agadir Agreement (AA) was signed in the city of Rabat on 25 February, 2004 between Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia, and entered into force on the 6th of July 2006 after completing the ratification requirements. It is in harmony with the Arab league charter in supporting mutual Arab cooperation and moving in implementing Greater Arab Free Trade Area (GAFTA), and contributes to the objectives of Barcelona Process concerning the establishment of the Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area.

COMESA is a huge regional market with 21 member states since 18 July 2018 after the joining of Tunisia and Somalia.

It came into force in January 1998 with the intention to liberalize trade during a period of 10 years. In March 2001, it was decided to speed up the liberalization process, and on 1 January 2005 the elimination of most tariffs among the GAFTA members was enforced. The 17 states that are members of GAFTA are: Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

Egypt signed the free trade agreement with Mercosur on the second of August 2010, during the 39th Summit of Heads of State of MERCOSUR and Associated States. However the agreement entered into force only on the 1st of September 2017.

The EFTA States signed a Free Trade Agreement with Egypt in Davos, Switzerland, on 27 January 2007. The Agreement entered into force on 1 August 2007.

On March 21st 2018, Egypt joined 43 other African countries in signing the African Continental Free trade Area (CFTA) agreement in Kigali. The agreement aims to ease the trade exchange between the countries that signed it according to a scheduled timeline and not through an immediate activation of the agreement. In addition, it will remove barriers and tariffs among the African countries, bringing together 1.2 billion people with a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of more than $2 trillion.