31 May - 6 June 2001
Issue No.536
|
Al-Ahram Weekly Online 31 May - 6 June 2001 Issue No.536 |
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
You say potatoes
British and Egyptian bilateral trade could flourish if some technical and logistical creases are ironed out. Sherine Nasr listens to suggestions
This week, Cairo hosted the 10th Egyptian-British Round Table, a regular bi-annual event that aims at exchanging information, facilitating trade and creating individual business-to-business relations between the two countries. Figures reveal that trade between Egypt and the UK is thriving, with the gap in Egypt's balance of trade increasingly narrowing -- UK exports to Egypt reached £500m in 2000, while Egypt's exports to the UK amounted to £426.5m in the same year (an increase of 61 per cent compared to 1999). Yet the meeting took up the same agenda discussed in a number of previous gatherings.
Both parties put their usual grievances on the table.
"One major problem in Egypt is the added cost imposed by customs for no clear reason. Such is a very common problem faced not only by British, but by all European exporters to Egypt as well," said Sir David Blatherwick, chairman of the Egyptian-British Chamber of Commerce, adding that these marginal inefficiencies can negatively impact a country's image.
The Egyptian Customs Authority, aiming to increase its income, adds a five per cent extra fee on top of duties, in return for what they term as "administrative services".
According to Hassan El-Shafie, member of the Egyptian Businessmen's Association that hosted the event, many complaints were raised to the customs authority regarding the exorbitant duties and obstructive bureaucracy, but serious steps have yet to be taken. "One solution is to seek private companies to undertake providing the customs services, a suggestion which has raised strong opposition. Private ports, such as the one at Ain Al-Sokhna, where international companies will be given responsibility for the task, might provide a good solution," he said.
Meanwhile, Egyptian exporters to the UK complained of the unfair treatment their products receive, particularly with regard to Egyptian potatoes. "The 'brown rot' frenzy is an absolutely political issue. The EU had to place many technical barriers simply to limit the large quantities of Egyptian potatoes entering the European market," said Samir El-Naggar, member of the British-Egyptian Businessmen's Association and a major exporter of potatoes to the UK.
"You are absolutely right," said Blatherwick, adding that the whole issue is in the hands of the EU Commission.
The UK was the no 1 importer of Egyptian potatoes in the early nineties. "Such is not the case now. Egyptian potato exports to the EU dropped from 400,000 tons in the early nineties to 100,000 tons last year," El-Naggar said.
Surprisingly, although Holland suffers from the same "brown rot" problem, no ban has been imposed on its exports of potatoes to any of the EU countries.
© Copyright Al-Ahram Weekly. All rights reserved
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||
| ARCHIVES Letter from the Editor Editorial Board Subscription Advertise! |
WEEKLY ONLINE: www.ahram.org.eg/weekly Updated every Saturday at 11.00 GMT, 2pm local time weeklyweb@ahram.org.eg |
 Al-Ahram Organisation |
Recommend this page