Egypt removes tax from sugar import

The Egyptian government has eliminated a temporary 500 Egyptian pound per tonne duty on white and refined sugar imports that it imposed in January, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said on Wednesday.

“Egypt’s minister of trade and industry has lifted safeguard measures imposed on imported sugar,” the ministry said in a statement.

“The temporary measures, which were to last for a maximum of one year, were introduced to help stabilise the price of sugar in the Egyptian market,” the statement added.

The minister, Rachid Mohamed Rachid, said when announcing the duty in January that there had been signs foreign sugar was being dumped in Egypt.

Representatives of Egypt’s food industry had asked the ministry to remove the duty to help reduce input prices and enable it to compete in the export market, Al Mal newspaper on Wednesday quoted Rachid as saying.

Egypt consumes about 2.2 million tonnes of sugar a year, including about 1.4 million tonnes produced domestically. About 60 percent of its imports had been coming from Brazil.

The January import duty was on top of an existing 10 percent duty on white sugar.

Source: Reuters