Egypt’s Ministry of Trade and Industry has unveiled an agreement with Russia that would exempt it from export fees to Egypt.
Minister Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour said in a statement on Wednesday that Russia had agreed to receive a delegation of Egyptian experts in Moscow within the coming few weeks to negotiate a trade deal by which certain amounts of Russian wheat could be exported to Egypt free of export fees.
The new measure is applicable starting next June, the minister said, noting that the deal is scheduled for signing in April.
Egypt, the world’s largest wheat importer and the second-largest buyer of Russian wheat, has been hit by Moscow's curbs on grain exports as the Kremlin seeks to cool domestic prices amid an economic crisis.
The informal curbs have already meant that Russian supplies intended for Egypt's state grain buyer, the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), have missed deadlines on previously agreed contracts.
An export tax was introduced on 1 February, with the duty on wheat exports set at 15 percent of the customs price plus 7.5 euros but will be no less than 35 euros ($40) a ton. The tax will be in effect until 30 June.
Abdel Nour said that talks by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Cairo over the past two days could represent “a quantum leap in the economic and commercial ties between both countries.”
