Evaluation of Economic Integration between Egypt and COMESA Countries and Its Impact on Egypt's International trade

Regional integration is one of the most important international mechanisms for gaining trade advantages that enhance international exchange for partner countries. The COMESA bloc is one of the most important forms of African economic integration that enhances Egypt's international relations with its trade counterparts within the African continent. Despite the trade advantages that the agreement grants to member states, the COMESA bloc is still not considered one of Egypt's main trade partners in its international trade, despite the passage of about 28 years since Egypt joined the bloc. Therefore, this study attempts to evaluate Egypt's membership in the bloc and its repercussions on Egypt's international exchange rates with the bloc's countries, and the most important commodities in which Egypt is distinguished in its trade with a high competitive advantage, through analyzing a set of trade integration indicators and applying data for the period from 1997 to 2022, as the study showed Egypt's weak benefit from its trade advantages within the bloc, and perhaps the reason for this is the similarity of production structures between the bloc's countries, and their dependence on other partners in their international trade, those countries whose production structures differ from Egypt's production structure, so to overcome this problem, it is necessary to target strengthening value chains between Egypt and the bloc countries, to target increasing Egypt's international trade with its current partners and enhancing its trade advantages, instead of increasing its international competition with the bloc's member countries.