Arab Republic of Egypt Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade General Organization for Export and Import Control

Within the framework of the fruitful cooperation between the USAID TRADE Reform and Development Project in Egypt and the GOEIC, in the field of enhancing facilitation of Trade Movement in Egypt through the application of a Comprehensive Risk Management System in the procedures for examining industrial and non-food goods, an expanded meeting was held and included leaders from the GOEIC, USAID, the TRADE Project, Engineering Export Council, and the technical working groups concerned with Risk Management and Assessment for the Electrical Appliances Sector at the GOEIC.

Whereas the international expert, Dr. Costas Athanasiadis, presented the final report on the results of the technical consultations and training for the USAID-funded Risk Assessment Project for electrical goods, which included a review of the principles and stages of the risk assessment process for these goods products, in addition to the basic methodologies and mechanisms related to identifying, analyzing and evaluating elements and levels of their risk through case studies and practical applications of potential risk scenarios resulting from their natural characteristics, as well as the non-compliance with safety standards and conformity assessment for this category of products, in accordance with international standards and best practices in this field.

The report included as well a presentation of the project implementation stages and its outcomes, which included conducting practical on-the-job training programs for technical working groups formed by the GOEIC and headed by Dr. Alaa Negm Eldin for managing and evaluating risks of Electrical Appliances Sector. These groups were trained on how to develop and build the matrix of classifying risk levels and formulate Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for 22 main categories exceeding 1,800 electrical appliances listed in Annexes No. 3 and 8 of the Executive Regulations of Import and Export Law No. 770 of 2005.

The importance of this project is represented in fulfilling the technical requirements of the most important selectivity criterion related to the risk factor of the product/ item according to (HS Code), within the framework of developing the GOEIC's work system to move from 100% comprehensive inspection to targeted risk-based inspection, enhancing trade facilitation, and improving the competitiveness of Egypt’s exports as an important strategic national goal towards conformity with international standards, by reducing customs release time, and costs associated with facilitating the movement of Egypt’s foreign trade without prejudice to safety standards.

It is worth noting that the Technical Assistance Program provided to the GOEIC by the USAID targets a series of complementary phases for the completed project, that complete development and building the matrix of classifying  risk levels and formulating Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for the rest of the other commodity sectors for the products listed in Annexes No. 3 and 8 of the Executive Regulations of Import and Export Law No. 770 of 2005, with a total more than 8,000 products, within the framework of achieving full application of the comprehensive Risk Management System to the procedures for examining industrial and non-food goods, within the project’s objectives in enhancing trade facilitation procedures and compliance with the requirements of WTO's Trade Facilitation Agreement in such regard.