The Mabdouly government abandoned plans to tighten import restrictions in the Port Said Freezone, a senior government official tells EnterpriseAM. Deputy Prime Minister for Industrial Development Kamel El Wazir decided to maintain the existing quota system and allow the general import of auto spare parts to continue, we were told.

What changed? Officials had been weighing a move to restrict the import of automotive spare parts exclusively to authorized service centers — a measure positioned as key to ensuring quality and curbing smuggling. Under the new directive, those restrictions are off the table, and some 70k import licenses in the zone will remain active under the current 3-15% preferential customs brackets.

It’s smart policy: Restricting imports to authorized dealers would have choked-off competition, opened the door to price hikes, curbed economic activity, and set up single points of failure in the supply chain.

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