The Egyptian government has decided that it will not renew a three-year transit-trade agreement with Turkey, Ahram Online quoted Egyptian officials as saying.
The move comes as the latest evidence of worsening relations between the two countries.
The agreement, signed in 2012 during Islamist president Mohamed Mursi's year in power, facilitated the export of Turkey’s goods to the Gulf and African nations through Egypt's mainland via Egyptian ports, Mohamed Abdel Kader, head of the Turkey and Arab East Programme of the Ahram Center for Strategic Studies told Ahram Online.
"This allowed Turkey to bypass the Suez Canal and other shipping costs which it had previously avoided by transporting its merchandise overland through Syrian ports, which was no longer possible in war-torn Syria," says Abdel Kader.
Revenues from the Suez Canal are one of the main sources of foreign currency revenue for Egypt, alongside tourism and remittances from Egyptian expatriates.
In return, the deal was meant to facilitate Egypt exports to Europe through Turkish ports, but "poor economic conditions in Egypt prevented it from taking advantage of that aspect of the agreement," he explains.
The decision not to renew the deal, set to expire in April 2015, is not only economic, as relations between the two nations have steadily deteriorated since the Egyptian armed forces ousted Morsi in July 2013 following nationwide popular protests against the Islamist, in what Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned at the time as a "coup."
The move comes as the latest evidence of worsening relations between the two countries.
The agreement, signed in 2012 during Islamist president Mohamed Mursi's year in power, facilitated the export of Turkey’s goods to the Gulf and African nations through Egypt's mainland via Egyptian ports, Mohamed Abdel Kader, head of the Turkey and Arab East Programme of the Ahram Center for Strategic Studies told Ahram Online.
"This allowed Turkey to bypass the Suez Canal and other shipping costs which it had previously avoided by transporting its merchandise overland through Syrian ports, which was no longer possible in war-torn Syria," says Abdel Kader.
Revenues from the Suez Canal are one of the main sources of foreign currency revenue for Egypt, alongside tourism and remittances from Egyptian expatriates.
In return, the deal was meant to facilitate Egypt exports to Europe through Turkish ports, but "poor economic conditions in Egypt prevented it from taking advantage of that aspect of the agreement," he explains.
The decision not to renew the deal, set to expire in April 2015, is not only economic, as relations between the two nations have steadily deteriorated since the Egyptian armed forces ousted Morsi in July 2013 following nationwide popular protests against the Islamist, in what Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned at the time as a "coup."
Source:
Mubasher
