During the first half of the year the European Ceramic industry has faced trade barriers in some northern African countries. In Egypt, the two Decrees 991/2015 and 43/2016, which require mandatory registration of foreign companies, are affecting EU companies in 25 sectors when entering the Egyptian market. As a result of these decrees EU exports in ceramic tiles have been blocked and many companies have been waiting to get Egyptian registration for over a year. The European Commission and the Egyptian authorities met on 9 February to discuss the issue. Cerame-Unie and CET provided input for this meeting to the Commission on burdensome registration system.

In Algeria, the ceramic tiles sector learned about the new opening of quantitative quotas for the import of goods under import licenses for the year 2017. Ceramic wall and floor tiles are listed among industrial products concerned by these quotas. To date no import licences have been granted.

These two issues have been discussed at the various MAAC meetings which Cerame-Unie / CET attended. In July, Renaud Batier, Director General of Cerame-Unie, attended a high level MAAC meeting with DG Joost Korte, where the Commission presented the Trade Barriers and Investments barrier Report 2017. DG Trade and participants discussed the next steps and exchanged on enhanced strategic approach to Market Access.