Trade-Induced Protectionism in Egypt’s Manufacturing Sector

Abstract:
After decades of extensive use of protection to promote industrialization in developing countries, the tide has been reversed in recent years. Egypt is no exception. The paper addresses the questions: How far did trade liberalization go in Egypt? What is the impact of trade liberalization on protection in Egyptian industries over the past decade? And how would protection in different industries evolve under Egypt’s full compliance with international trade liberalization commitments? The assessment includes both tariff-induced protection as well as non-tariff barriers to trade, such as quality control, import bans, and anti-dumping.
The paper concludes that protection in industries has declined significantly from 31 percent in 1994 to 19 percent in 2002, with most of the liberalization confined to the first 4 years of this period. Moreover, the study shows that the effective protection in industry is expected to decline by at least 40 percent with the full liberalization of trade with Arab countries, the European Union and the United States.