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

Tunisian capital witnessed today signing Memorandum of Understanding on the mutual recognition of Conformity Certificates for non-food industrial goods between Arab Republic of Egypt and the Republic of Tunisia, in a pivotal step to enhance the flow of trade movement and support technical cooperation between the two countries.

Engineer Essam El Naggar, President of the General Organization for Export and Import Control (GOEIC), and Engineer Khaled Soufy, President of the General Authority for Standardization and Quality (EOS), signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Tunisian party, that targets activating mechanism of accepting Conformity Certificates between the two countries.

Signing ceremony was attended by Bassem Hassan, Egyptian Ambassador to Tunisia, and Mr. Mohamed El-Maghrabi, Egyptian Commercial Attaché to Tunisia, along with a high-level delegation of leaders from the GOEIC, from Conformity Certificate Issuance Units and Central Department for Exports and Origin, and from the Tunisian side, Mr. Nafaa Boutini, Director General of National Institute for Standardization and Industrial Property, and the accompanying technical delegation.

The implementation mechanism aims to activate Memorandum of Understanding through mutual accreditation of Conformity Certificates issued by competent authorities in both countries, covering non-food industrial goods and products of Egyptian or Tunisian origin, agreed upon by both sides in accordance with joint technical mechanisms and controls. This mechanism reduces the time and cost of pre-export inspection, avoids duplication in conformity procedures, enhances mutual confidence in national control systems and laboratories and it supports national industry and enable it to access regional markets more efficiently, in addition to enhancing commercial cooperation and raising the exchange to one billion dollars.

Both sides confirmed that the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding represents a qualitative step in the path of technical cooperation between the quality and control entities in both countries, and contributes to facilitating trade and raising the competitiveness of products, and enhances the efforts of the two governments towards effective economic integration that serves common interests.

In a related context, the two sides discussed ways to enhance trade and investment cooperation between Egypt and Tunisia, and to raise the volume of trade exchange to one billion dollars during the coming period. The talks also included enhancing Tunisian investments in Egypt, presenting the opportunities available to Egyptian companies in the Tunisian market, as well as identifying promising sectors that could witness joint partnerships between the private sector in the two countries.

The positive development in trade movement between Egypt and Tunisia was also reviewed, as the volume of trade exchange in 2024 reached about $434.5 million, with a growth rate of 15.4%.