Cairo – Mubasher: Egypt’s minister of trade and industry has denied news that the government was going to postpone the application of customs reductions on imported European cars.
The government is not planning to postpone cutting tariffs on cars imported from the European Union (EU), Amr Nassar told Enterprise.
“Automobiles imported from the EU will enjoy zero-duty access to Egypt as of 1 January under our trade liberalization agreement with the European Union,” the website added.
Nassar’s statement came as a response to media reports that the government would delay the customs reduction.
The minister noted that he had no idea as to the source of the rumour.
On Saturday, Al Youm7 newspaper reported, citing an unnamed government source as saying that the customs cut would be delayed by two years.
Meanwhile, El Sayed Negm, head of the customs authority, said the tariff cut on EU vehicles was moving according to plan and would be imposed starting 1 January 2019.
In May, the Automotive Marketing Information Council (AMIC) reported a 32.3% year-on-year surge in auto sales in the first three months of 2018 to 35,100 cars.
