Trade Ministry to grant temporary licenses for importers who don’t yet comply with Import Registry Act

The General Authority for Export and Import Control will grant temporary licenses to importers who are currently unable to meet the December deadline to comply with amendments to the Importers Registry Act, the authority’s head Ismail Gaber said, according to Al Mal. The Trade and Industry Ministry had extended to December the deadline to comply with the new act, which increases the minimum capital for importers and imposes stricter penalties for violation of import regulations in a bid tighten import controls. Gaber implied that the move was part of a number of measures to improve Egypt’s cross border trade rankings in the World Bank’s Doing Business report. Egypt was ranked 170th globally on that metric in the 2018 report.