The Egyptian government has notified the World Trade Organization (WTO) that it has imposed a provisional safeguard duty on steel billet and rebar imports for a period of 180 days starting from April 15. Egypt will collect up to 15 percent duty on billet imports and 25 percent duty on rebar imports.

According to the notification made to the WTO, imports from developing countries shall not be subject to the proposed provisional safeguard measure as long as each country’s exports individually do not exceed three percent of total imports into Egypt. In addition, the share of the countries with less than three percent import share do not collectively account for more than nine percent of total imports into Egypt.

The products subject to the provisional duty currently fall under Egyptian Customs Tariff Schedule Numbers 7207, 7213 and 7214.