Egypt withdraws from UN grain treaty prompting sadness and concern

Egypt, one of the world’s largest wheat importers, has given notice it will withdraw at the end of June from a decades-old UN grains treaty, causing consternation among some other signatories to the convention.

Egypt’s departure from the multinational Grains Trade Convention (GTC), which promotes market transparency to further trade cooperation, follows a period of turmoil in grains markets linked to the war in Ukraine and concerns about global food security.

Egypt signed the GTC, the only international treaty covering trade in grains, at its inception in 1995, and has been a member of the council that governs it since 1949. In February it submitted a request to withdraw with effect from June 30, 2023.

“This came without prior information. Several delegations within the IGC are surprised and sad about the decision,” Arnaud Petit, executive director of the International Grains Council, which administers the treaty