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Egypt Trade Partners
The revolutionary regime shifted Egypt not only politically but
also economically toward the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Prior
to 1952, Egypt's major trading partner was Britain. By 1970 the
share of Egypt's exports to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe had
risen to about 60 percent of the total, climbing from about 20
percent in 1955. The share of imports from the Soviet Union and
Eastern Europe during the same period increased from 7 percent to
about 33 percent. Nevertheless, Western industrialized countries
continued to be the major source of imports, especially of food,
which Eastern Europe could not furnish. In general, trade with
Eastern Europe showed a balance of payments surplus in favor of
Egypt, but this surplus may have resulted partly from politically
motivated subsidies.
Ending the concentration of trade with Eastern Europe was an
integral element of Sadat's westward reorientation of the country.
The consolidation of trade with the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) continued apace under Mubarak. The
United States emerged as Egypt's largest source of imports, in part
because its aid to Egypt was conditioned on Egypt's purchasing
American goods and services. Between 1982 and 1986, Egypt obtained
from the United States an average of 16 percent of its total
imports. On the average, OECD nations supplied 46 percent of
imports and purchased 55 percent of Egypt's exports by 1986.
Put differently, Egyptian foreign trade was concentrated with
the industrialized countries. Third World and Arab nations were
minor trading partners. Some analysts argued, however, that if
Egypt wished to attract foreign industrial investment it would need
to obtain new markets, especially in the Arab region. The Arab
market had been closed to Egypt because of Egypt's 1979 peace
treaty with Israel, but the reentry of Egypt into the Arab fold in
the mid-1980s might further trade with the Arab nations. A regional
economic Arab Cooperation Council including Egypt, Iraq, Jordan,
and the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) was formed in February
1989. It set modest goals, and in the early 1990s it was unclear
how this accord would fare, given the failed record of Arab
integration schemes and the politicized nature of the bloc, which,
for example, excluded Syria, a natural partner in regional economic
cooperation.
Data as of December 1990
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