Egypt and Qatar in talks to finalise trade deal

• Egypt’s trade with Saudi and UAE at $7bn
• Trade with Qatar only $143m
• Europe and Africa access possible

Qatar and Egypt are in talks to finalise a free trade agreement (FTA) designed to increase business and investment between the two countries, which has remained low compared to other Gulf nations.

Qatar also hopes to give its companies bigger access to European markets through Egypt, which has FTAs with several European nations.

Trade between Qatar and Egypt jumped by around 80 percent to nearly $143 million in the first 10 months of 2025 from around $80 million in the first 10 months of 2024, Egypt’s investment and foreign trade minister Hassan Al-Khatib said.

Despite the increase, Qatar’s trade with Egypt is considered small compared with Cairo’s with such Gulf oil giants as Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Trade was nearly $5 billion and $2 billion respectively in the first 10 nine months of this year, Egyptian government statistics show.

Egypt’s trade statistics

The two Gulf countries are also among the largest foreign investors in Egypt and are home to more than two million Egyptian workers. The remittances they send home support the North African country with billions of dollars in hard currency every year.

The planned FTA comes a few weeks after Qatari Diar, the real estate arm of Doha’s sovereign wealth fund, announced it would develop a tourism project on Egypt’s northern Mediterranean coast, with planned investments of more than $29 billion.

The development aims to turn Alam Al-Roum, an undeveloped stretch of coastline 480 kilometres (300 miles) northeast of Cairo, into a year-round destination. It will target international visitors with luxury neighbourhoods, golf courses, marinas, schools, universities and government facilities.

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“Qatar is looking forward to signing a FTA with Egypt to increase trade and expand investment opportunities between the two countries,” Qatar’s minister of state for foreign trade Ahmed Al-Sayed said at an Egyptian-Qatar business forum in Cairo this week.

In comments published by Egypt’s cabinet on its Facebook account, Al-Sayed said Doha also hopes the FTA would “facilitate the entry of Qatari companies to Europe and Africa as Cairo has trade agreements with several African and European countries.”