The mission of the Trade Agreements Sector (TAS) is to implement the trade policies of the Ministry of Trade and Industry in order to promote trade expansion and sustainable economic growth through the negotiation and administration of, as well as the coordination and compliance with, bilateral, regional and WTO trade agreements, including the enforcement of Egypt’s rights under all trade agreements.

To accomplish this mission, TAS performs the following functions:

• Coordinates all WTO-related matters for Egypt.
• Facilitates compliance with WTO membership-related obligations.
• Protects the Egyptian economy from unfair trade practices and other injurious activities.
• Negotiates and administers bilateral, regional, and multilateral agreements.
• Develops institutional capabilities within TAS.
• Promotes public awareness on all issues related to trade agreements, including Egypt's rights and obligations in WTO agreements.

TAS was officially established by Ministerial Decree 411 of 2002 and initially included the Central Department of Bilateral and Multilateral Agreements (CD/BMA) and Central Department of World Trade Organization Affairs (CD/WTO). The CD/WTO acts as the main coordinating body for all issues related to the WTO. Among its main functions is serving as the Technical Secretariat to the High National Committee on the Doha Negotiations (HNC), which formulates the Egyptian position in all WTO negotiations. The Central Department for Bilateral and Multilateral Agreements was established in order to improve coordination among bilateral, regional, and multilateral negotiations and to improve Egyptian products’ access to foreign markets. This linkage helps to ensure that bilateral and regional agreements are fully consistent with Egypt’s WTO commitments, that critical information is shared during bilateral, regional, or multilateral negotiations, and that specialized technical expertise is integrated to handle trade negotiations.

In 2003 the Central Department of International Trade Policies (CD/ITP) was moved to TAS from the Foreign Trade Policies Sector. While CD/WTO and CD/BMA help ensure improved access for Egyptian products abroad, the CD/ITP, since its inception in 1998, has been helping to defend Egyptian producers against trading partners’ unfair trade practices or surges in imports that cause serious injury to local producers. Finally, the European Partnership Agreement Unit (EPAU) was added to TAS to help implement the Egypt-EU Partnership Agreement.

Supporting CD/WTO, CD/BMA, CD/ITP, and EPAU are a legal research and analysis unit and a trade analysis unit, both new additions to TAS. The first unit helps to ensure that Egypt complies with its trade agreement obligations, while the second works to measure the impact of different trade agreements to better guide TAS and MFTI policies. TAS also includes departments for administration and management, as well as information technology. Click here to see the TAS Organizational Chart.

In 2004 TAS, through its various departments, drafted its first Trade Agreements Sector Program for the Promotion of Egyptian Exports during 2005-2006, which details the Sector and the Ministry’s strategy to promote Egyptian exports through bilateral, regional and multilateral agreements.