Strengthening the Compliance of the OIC Member States

to International Standards

representatives if they wish to gain access the European market. Another problem for Egyptian

exporters is the great variety of quality standards applied across the Arab world and by other trade

partners in Africa and Asia, in addition to strict standards applied by the EU, making exporting to more

than one destination very costly. Exporters are often reluctant to comply to EU standards while there

are other export destinations with less restrictive product quality requirements. Concretely, Egypt

shows a high level of use of international standards in a regulatory sense, but businesses on the ground

are constrained by the need to meet requirements in diverse export markets.

Apart from standard-related trade barriers, a number of procedural obstacles- at home and at the

destination market- have been reported. These can be summarized under complex procedures, large

number of required documents to be issued by several government authorities and lack of coordination

between these authorities, bureaucracy and delays at customs clearance points and lack of facilities at

the ports. Below is a brief description of Egypt’s main exports and a summary of non-tariff measures

affecting trade in these.

Chemicals

Egypt’s main export destinations for chemicals are the European and Arab markets, which account for

nearly 70% of Egypt’s total exports of this category. While exports to Arab countries seems less

restricted, exporters face a number of standard-related difficulties when exporting to the European

market, which are mainly related to lack of compliance with protection of human health and

environment measures. Difficulties reported by top exporters of chemical products

highlight the lack

of awareness of certification requirements according to EU standards and difficulties to register in the

REACH

process through an intermediate EU agent, especially for exporters from small and medium

enterprises. Measures related to packaging and labeling have been reported as another important trade-

related barrier. At-home border measures are also significant for this sector. For example, exporters

often encounter sudden changes in regulations pertaining to banning exports of certain inputs, increase

or imposition of new tariffs on some final products or intermediate goods at the custom’s clearance

points, which are usually not communicated to exporters in advance.

Textiles

Based on communication with the Head of Department for chemical products at the Ministry of Trade and Industry and a report by one

of the leading exporters of chemical products (KAPCI paints Egypt).

REACH is a regulation of the European Union, adopted to improve the protection of human health and the environment from the risks

that can be posed by chemicals. It also promotes alternative methods for the hazard assessment of substances in order to reduce the

number of tests on animals. (Source: European Chemicals Agency (ECHA)).