Sudan ratifies ban on Egyptian imports

KHARTOUM: Sudan’s cabinet has approved a ban on importing agricultural and animal products from Egypt, Sudan’s state news agency Suna said on Tuesday, escalating trade tensions between the neighbours.

The cabinet urged the private sector to import products directly from countries of origin, bypassing Egypt.

The statement did not give a reason for the decisions.

Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said Cairo was told the decision was due to “a technical procedure”.

Foreign firms have been caught in the crossfire.

Saudi Arabia’s Savola Group has had to re-route much of its Egyptbased sugar output that it normally sells to Sudan. Savola imports raw Brazilian sugar and refines it in Egypt for export.

“The volumes going there are about 20,000 tonnes a month, but now unfortunately this looks like it will be stopped indefinitely,” a source at the company said.

The neighbours have been at odds over issues that include a longrunning dispute over land on Egypt’s southern border with Sudan, as well as trade restrictions and burdensome visa requirements that have threatened commercial relations.

Sudan this month accused Egypt of supporting rebels who it says want to topple the government in Khartoum. Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah alSisi had rejected the charge.

Sudan’s Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour was due to visit Egypt this week to discuss the trade row and other issues, but the trip was postponed for a week, Abu Zeid said.

Amany al Taweel, African affairs expert at the Cairo-based Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, blamed the political and other differences for Sudan’s decision.

Sudan’s economy was shaken by the 2011 secession of the south, which had been its main oil producing region. With 40 million people, Sudan is half the size of Egypt with 92 million people.

Egypt also has a much bigger industrial base. Sudan imported about $591 million worth of goods from Egypt in 2016, most of which were food items.