On 14 October 2014, the Egyptian Ministry of Industry, Trade and Small & Medium Enterprises initiated a safeguard investigation on imports of steel rebar.
The products subject to investigation are classified under the following HS code subheadings: 7213 and 7214.
This follows the application lodged by the Chamber of Metallurgical Industries on behalf of the domestic industry.
 
A provisional safeguard duty was immediately imposed for a period of 200 days. The rate of the duty is 7.3% of the CIF value, and not less than EGP 290 per metric ton (USD 37.95 per metric ton at the exchange rate of June 2nd, 2015).
Imports from developing countries shall not be subject to this provisional safeguard measure as long as each country's imports individually do not exceed 3% of total imports into Egypt.
 
According to the UN Comtrade Database, in 2013 the following countries exported goods classified under HS code subheadings 7213 and 7214 to Egypt with a trade value over the GTA threshold of USD 1 million: Turkey, Ukraine, China and Italy. Hence, they might be affected trading partners.
 
On April 15th, 2015, the Egyptian authorities notified to the WTO their decision to impose a definitive safeguard duty on imports of steel rebar.
The rate of the duty is 8% of the CIF value (and not less than EGP 408, i.e. USD 53.40, per metric ton) up to October 13th, 2015; 6.5% of the CIF value (and not less than EGP 325, i.e. USD 42.54, per metric ton) up to October 13th, 2016; 3.5% of the CIF value (and not less than EGP 175, i.e. USD 22.90, per metric ton) up to October 13th, 2017.
This definitive safeguard measure should remain in force up to October 13th, 2017.

On 7 June 2017, the Egyptian authorities notified to the WTO their decision to terminate the above definitive safeguard duty on imports of the subject good. This follows the request submitted by the domestic industry. The duties were terminated on 6 June 2017.