Partnerships and Agreements

Partnerships and Agreements

Before September 1994, the two major bilateral trade agreements between Egypt and the United States were the Bilateral Investment Treaty signed in September 1982 and a Market Access Agreement for Textiles & Clothing signed in 1973. The signing of the U.S.–Egyptian Partnership for Economic Growth & Development in September 1994 was an important milestone in the two countries’ relationship. Most recently, in July 1999, Egypt and the United States signed the Trade & Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) as a preliminary step towards a Free Trade Agreement between them.

Textile & Apparel Agreement

The United States and Egypt have had a bilateral textile agreement in effect since December 1973. This agreement has been renewed periodically, for varying lengths of time, with the most recent renegotiations occurring in 1995.

As part of the WTO Agreement on Textiles & Clothing (ATC) the Bilateral Textile & Apparel Agreement of 1995 will stay in effect until the phase out of quotas for WTO members in 2004. In accordance with the ATC, the United States notified the Textiles Monitoring Body (TMB) of provisions from Egypt’s agreement that remain in effect during the transition to quota elimination. This notification is administered in the Egypt ATC 2.17 Notification. Textile products subject to this agreement are cotton textiles, man-made fiber textiles, wool textiles, and silk or non-cotton vegetable fiber textiles.

(Source: http://www.amcham.org.eg/BSAC/ustrade/Partnership.asp#6)