- Egypt’s QIZ exports now face a 10% U.S. tariff under Trump’s new trade measures, impacting duty-free access.
- The U.S. may lift Egypt tariffs if non-tariff barriers in agriculture, services, and shipping are removed.
- Egypt eyes attracting Chinese, Turkish, and Vietnamese manufacturing to boost exports amid tariff changes.
QIZ
What happened? Yahya Elwathik Bellah A. Nabih, Head of the Egyptian Commercial Service (ECS) at the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade revealed that Egypt’s QIZ exports are subject to Trump’s 10% tariff on Egypt.
What are the details? At an event at the Egyptian Center for Economic Studies, the Head of ECS, explained that the US might roll back the tariffs on Egypt if certain non-tariff barriers in specific sectors are removed. This is based on ongoing discussion between the two countries
Mr Elwathiq Bellah explained that these barriers relate to the agricultural and service sectors as well as shipping inefficiencies. Moreover, he added that Egypt is currently working to resolve these issues.
What is QIZ? Egypt signed the Qualifying Industrial Zone (QIZ) agreement in 2004 with the U.S. and Israel. Furthermore, it allows Egyptian products to enter U.S. markets tariff- and quota-free, provided they include a set percentage of Israeli input. This input is currently 10.5% in the final product..
Tariffs
What is the context? US President Donald Trump introduced tariffs on 185 countries, ranging from 10% to a maximum of 50%. The tariffs included Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Morocco each facing 10%. These tariffs went into effect on April 5th 2025.
Possible Opportunities In a similar context, the Egyptian government is studying plans to attract investments from China, Turkey, and Vietnam for low-cost local manufacturing. This is to re-open the export to the United States. He said Chinese investors will visit Egypt in the coming months to explore available opportunities. Elwathiq Bellah noted that China could use Egypt as a base for re-exporting to the U.S. through local manufacturing.
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