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Egypt in Talks with Argentina, India and US on Wheat Imports

A farmer tends wheat at a field in El-Kalubia governorate, northeast of Cairo, March 1, 2022. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany
A farmer tends wheat at a field in El-Kalubia governorate, northeast of Cairo, March 1, 2022. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany
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Egypt in Talks with Argentina, India and US on Wheat Imports

A farmer tends wheat at a field in El-Kalubia governorate, northeast of Cairo, March 1, 2022. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany
A farmer tends wheat at a field in El-Kalubia governorate, northeast of Cairo, March 1, 2022. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

Egypt is in talks with Argentina, India, France and the United States for future wheat imports but is in no rush to buy at the moment, the supply minister said on Thursday.

Egypt, one of the world's biggest wheat importers, is looking for alternatives to Black Sea grain exports which face disruptions caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, both major wheat exporters to Egypt. Global grain prices have soared.

"There's no need for tenders right now but we are planning for the entire year so we are open to all possibilities and preparing backup plans," Supply Minister Ali Moselhy said.

He said Egypt could start tendering again in the local mid-harvest period, which typically starts in April and ends in July or August. The government aims to procure 6 million tons of wheat from the local harvest.

The minister said the government had already held talks with the United States and France and would meet Argentinian representatives next week.

Indian suppliers still have to seek accreditation as an import origin from state buyer the General Authority for Supply Commodities (GASC), Reuters reported.

The government set a fixed price for unsubsidized bread this week after bread prices jumped 25% to 1.25 Egyptian pounds($0.07) per loaf in some bakeries. Flour prices had also reached highs of 11,000 Egyptian pounds ($602.70) per ton in the weeks since the invasion.

The supply ministry said it would begin offering flour to the private sector at 8,600 Egyptian pounds ($471.23) per ton, and would penalize for violators of the fixed prices from Saturday, the minister added.

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ECB's Lagarde Renews Integration Call as Trade War Looms

FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn arrive at the non-monetary policy meeting of the ECB's Governing Council in Inari, Finnish Lapland, Finland February 22, 2023. Lehtikuva/Tarmo Lehtosalo via REUTERS//File Photo
FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn arrive at the non-monetary policy meeting of the ECB's Governing Council in Inari, Finnish Lapland, Finland February 22, 2023. Lehtikuva/Tarmo Lehtosalo via REUTERS//File Photo
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ECB's Lagarde Renews Integration Call as Trade War Looms

FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn arrive at the non-monetary policy meeting of the ECB's Governing Council in Inari, Finnish Lapland, Finland February 22, 2023. Lehtikuva/Tarmo Lehtosalo via REUTERS//File Photo
FILE PHOTO: European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde and Governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn arrive at the non-monetary policy meeting of the ECB's Governing Council in Inari, Finnish Lapland, Finland February 22, 2023. Lehtikuva/Tarmo Lehtosalo via REUTERS//File Photo

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde renewed her call for economic integration across Europe on Friday, arguing that intensifying global trade tensions and a growing technology gap with the United States create fresh urgency for action.
US President-elect Donald Trump has promised to impose tariffs on most if not all imports and said Europe would pay a heavy price for having run a large trade surplus with the US for decades.
"The geopolitical environment has also become less favorable, with growing threats to free trade from all corners of the world," Lagarde said in a speech, without directly referring to Trump.
"The urgency to integrate our capital markets has risen."
While Europe has made some progress, EU members tend to water down most proposals to protect vested national interests to the detriment of the bloc as a whole, Reuters quoted Lagarde as saying.
But this is taking hundreds of billions if not trillions of euros out of the economy as households are holding 11.5 trillion euros in cash and deposits, and much of this is not making its way to the firms that need the funding.
"If EU households were to align their deposit-to-financial assets ratio with that of US households, a stock of up to 8 trillion euros could be redirected into long-term, market-based investments – or a flow of around 350 billion euros annually," Lagarde said.
When the cash actually enters the capital market, it often stays within national borders or leaves for the US in hope of better returns, Lagarde added.
Europe therefore needs to reduce the cost of investing in capital markets and must make the regulatory regime easier for cash to flow to places where it is needed the most.
A solution might be to create an EU-wide regulatory regime on top of the 27 national rules and certain issuers could then opt into this framework.
"To bypass the cumbersome process of regulatory harmonization, we could envisage a 28th regime for issuers of securities," Lagarde said. "They would benefit from a unified corporate and securities law, facilitating cross-border placement, holding and settlement."
Still, that would not solve the problem that few innovative companies set up shop in Europe, partly due to the lack of funding. So Europe must make it easier for investment to flow into venture capital and for banks to fund startups, she said.