PTI reported Sunday that India and Egypt would form a working group to decide terms of reference for a possible trade pact, as official figures showed merchandise trade rose 64% in April-September.
India’s Ministry of Commerce & Industry had announced the seventh Joint Trade Committee meeting in Cairo for Nov. 15. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Egypt’s Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade, Mohamed Farid Saleh, co-chaired the meeting. The ministry said the committee had been elevated to ministerial level, but its advance announcement did not mention the reported pact-related step.
The ministry had said the meeting was expected to cover market access, non-tariff barriers and cooperation in pharmaceuticals, engineering and logistics. It also said a delegation of more than 130 business leaders and startups was visiting alongside business forums and meetings.
DGCIS figures cited by the ministry showed bilateral merchandise trade of $5.04 billion from April through September 2026, up 64% from the same period a year earlier. For fiscal 2025-26, India exported $3.87 billion in goods to Egypt and imported $2.60 billion. In a separate release, the ministry said Goyal described bilateral trade as about $6.5 billion.
PTI also reported that Goyal urged the countries to expand trade in local currencies and proposed linking India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) with Egyptian payment systems. He said broader local-currency trade and payment-system work could “bring down the cost of doing business.”
The payment proposal builds on earlier committee discussions: at its 2024 meeting, the trade committee discussed international trade settlement and digital payments, according to India’s Commerce Ministry. A 2023 joint statement by India and Egypt cited $7.26 billion in bilateral trade in fiscal 2021-22 and set a goal of reaching $12 billion within five years through a more diversified trade basket and greater value addition.
PTI reported that a working group would be set up, but gave no date for completing the terms of reference. No timetable for formal negotiations was reported.
