Egypt ratifies WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement

CAIRO – 24 June 2017: President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi ratified the World Trade Organization (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement, Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade Tarek Kabil said Saturday.

The multi-end agreement would double Egypt’s exports to international markets and reduce trade costs in developing countries by 14 percent, Kabil said in a statement.
Under the agreement, procedures and regulations of trade flow will be improved.

It also obliges all WTO members to ease procedures to increase exports of small businesses and enlarge the involvement of developing counties in global value chains
Egypt is now coordinating with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to officially notify the WTO with the approval, Kabil noted.

The agreement was a result of the Doha Development Agenda, where WTO members pledged at the end of 2013 to facilitate custom matters.