São Paulo – Exports from Brazil to the Port of Alexandria, in Egypt, will go through the Easy Trade platform starting in June. The decision is part of an agreement signed between the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) and the Egyptian Customs authority this Thursday (4). Pictured above, ABCC president Osmar Chohfi and Central Directorate of Affairs of the Customs Authority of Egypt head Ahmed Abo Elhassan, signing the agreement.
Easy Trade is the digital platform developed by the ABCC to make the foreign trade process completely digital, saving time and costs. The ABCC already uses the tool for exports from Brazil to Jordan. A delegation of Egyptian executives attended appointments in Brazil this week and had technical meetings with the Brazilian institution’s team working on the system.
The secretary-general & CEO of the ABCC, Tamer Mansour, stressed the automation of the customs operation, which was the mission’s primary goal, had been achieved. “For that, we signed the work procedure between the ABCC and Egyptian Customs, which says from the beginning of June, we will carry out operations to the Port of Alexandria digitally, with the customs clearance of Brazilian products becoming digital, without the need for physical documentation,” he told ANBA.
The institutions also decided to continue working together, later expanding the platform to other Egyptian ports. Projections are for that to happen from the middle of June. “All parties will benefit from this system, especially as the Egyptian Customs Authority has already taken many important steps since 2019,” said Ahmed Abo Elhassan.
He said Egypt introduced comprehensive legislation to keep up with recent market trends. “We are ready to permanently coordinate and organize the ABCC’s procedures to arrive at an ideal electronic mechanism to have this secure exchange between us and a positive impact on trade and save time on the export and import processes,” said Elhassan about bilateral trade between Brazil and Egypt.
For the Egyptians, this week’s appointments opened many opportunities for the two sides to continue joint actions. “And we are not just talking about cooperation between Brazil and Egypt, but a regional partnership with Latin America via the ABCC. We are very optimistic for the next phase and will have many positive results,” concluded Mohammad Fathy Khamiss, head of Technology of the Egyptian Customs Authority.
“The idea is we start using Easy Trade for Brazil first and then apply it to all Mercosur countries,” highlighted Mansour. The schedule of the Egyptian delegation in Brazil was organized by the ABCC. It included meetings in the port city of Santos, in the state of São Paulo, and the Brazilian federal capital, Brasília. Read more about the schedule here.
Translated by Elúsio Brasileiro
