IMPACT OF THE EGYPTIAN PARTNERSHIP IN ECONOMIC BLOCS AND BILATERAL AGREEMENTS ON Egypt's AGRICULTURAL EXPORTS

The study aimed to answer three questions, the first of which looks at the difference in the volume of Egyptian agricultural exports between countries that enter into economic or bilateral blocs with Egypt from their counterparts that do not share with Egypt.The results were as follows: The average volume of Egypt's exports of oranges, grapes, potatoes, and onions to the countries with which Egypt has agreements reached about 26, 2, 22, 13 thousand tons as an average for the period 1986-2017, respectively. While the average volume of exports of the same crops to countries with which Egypt is not bound by any form of agreements was about 27, 2.5, 62, 27 thousand tons during the same period. The significant differences between the quantities exported of the four crops to different countries were also proven. Moving to the second question, which reflects the effect of activating trade agreements or blocs on the change in the volume of exports of the study crops, the results were as follows:The results of the t-test for the differences between the two averages before and after the agreement showed that all the differences between the average exports of Egyptian oranges after and before activating the agreements between the countries referred to in the research were significant, except for Jordan and Kuwait. In the case of the grape crop, the results showed that all the differences between the average exports of Egyptian grapes were insignificant after and before activating the agreements.All the differences between average exports of potatoes after and before activating the agreements between the aforementioned countries, with the exception of Greece and Germany, were also found to be significant. Finally, regarding the onion crop, the results indicated that all the differences between the average exports of Egyptian onions after and before activating the agreements from the countries referred to in the study were significant, except for the countries of Kuwait and Greece.Finally, regarding the third question, which examines the effect of activating the agreements on the behavior of agricultural exports to the countries participating with Egypt in trade agreements only, it shows that the regression function model is significant in general for the four crops, regardless that this significance was in the function segment only or the slope only or both together.