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Pursuant to Article 7 of Law No. 118/1975, the exportation of certain commodities can be prohibited or restricted through Ministerial Decree to meet local demand and for environmental purposes.

Exports of rice of any kind (HS10.06), including broken rice, are banned in accordance with Ministerial Decree No. 722/2016 issued on 1 August 2016; this measure has unlimited validity and was imposed due to the lack of water resources. (...)

There are some restrictions on investment activities in free zones in the case of heavy or explosive industries. In 2015, further limitations were introduced for energy-related free zone investments, and licences are no longer granted in free zones for projects in the following sectors: fertilizers; oil and steel; petroleum; natural gas production, liquefaction and transport; or other energy-intensive industries.

Law No. 15 of 2017 for the Simplification of Industrial Licensing Procedures was approved by Parliament in March 2017 and entered into force on 3 May 2017. The new law simplifies requirements and shortens the length of procedures for issuing industrial licences. (...) Low-risk projects can be established by a simple notification to the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) subject to a subsequent inspection and are granted a grace period of one year for compliance. SMEs are given a grace period of two years to comply. These projects are exempted from submitting an environmental assessment study.

As a second step, the establishment of a Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) was announced in 2014. (...) Investment is sought in particular in certain industries including: (...) renewable energy; (...)

Egypt does not provide explicit incentives to encourage investment by private companies in research and development (R&D) activities. The Government does, however, fund R&D directly through the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, as well as other ministries that provide R&D funding from the annual state budget and through scientific institutions and universities. According to the authorities, the annual budgeted assistance for R&D is less than 0.3% of GDP. Publicly funded R&D is geared towards the following priority areas: agriculture, biotechnology, environmental technologies, manufacturing technologies, information technology, energy, and standards and metrology. Tax rebates of up to 50% are available for investment in technological hubs. Tax rebates from the cost of investment upon inception range from 30% to 50% based on the geographical area, and are capped at 80% of the paid-up capital; this applies across different industries including technological hubs.

The Investment Law No. 72/17 introduced regional incentives in the form of a discount on taxable net profits, depending on the region. Projects located in Sector A, which includes the geographic locations most urgently requiring development, receive a 50% discount off their investment costs; projects in Sector B, which covers all the remaining areas of Egypt, enjoy a 30% discount off their investment costs. In the latter case, projects must be at least one of the following: (...) (c) dependent on or produce new and renewable energy; (...) (k) a food, agricultural products, or agricultural waste-recycling industry project; (...)

(...) The General Organization for Veterinary Services (GOVS) is also responsible for protecting human life or health from diseases carried by animal products, and for protecting animal life or health from the entry, establishment or spread of disease-carrying or disease-causing organisms. In order to better protect the Egyptian territory from other damage arising from the entry, establishment or spread of diseases transmitted by animals, a Risk Assessment Unit geared at the implementation of Article 5 of the SPS Agreement was established in GOVS by Administrative Decree No. 398/2015.

Egypt currently lacks a comprehensive biosafety regulatory regime. The authorities have indicated that they are currently working on the draft of a National Biosafety Law, which would allow Egypt to have a fully operational National Biosafety Framework (NBF).

Egypt maintains some packaging and labelling requirements for SPS reasons. For instance, wood packaging materials entering Egypt must be treated and certified in accordance with the standards established by the relevant International Standard for Phytosanitary Measures ("Guidelines for Regulating Wood Packaging Material in International Trade"). Wooden containers must be accompanied by an official certificate declaring the containers to be free of insects and pests. For imported non-food commodities, Decree No. 396/1994 establishes that the remaining shelf-life should be at least half the original shelf-life.