Egypt’s non-petroleum exports to U.S. rise 17.5% in first 11 months of 2017

Egypt’s non-petroleum industrial exports to U.S have made “remarkable progress” between January to November this year, increasing 17.5 percent recording $1.346 billion compared to 1.145 billion in 2016, Minister of  Industry and Trade Tarek Qabil said.

The non-petroleum industrial exports represents 90 percent of the total Egyptian exports to the U.S, he added.

Qabil said that exports within the Qualified Industrial Zones (QIZ) agreement increased by 2 percent to stand at $697 million, compared to $683 million last year. Meanwhile, exports within the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program rose by 18.3 percent to reach $81.2 million, up from $68.6 million a year earlier.

Head of the Egyptian Commercial Service Ahmed Antar attributed the rise in exports to the efforts of Egypt’s commercial service in Washington, which worked on helping Egypt’s products enter the U.S market and on maximizing the benefit from the signed trade agreements between Egypt and the U.S.

Among the exports that saw a rise were textiles and readymade garments at a value of $832 million, iron and steel at $95.5 million, fertilizers at $79.4 and papers at $30.4 million, Antar said.