Judicial review of trade remedies in Egypt

Abstract

Since 1997, Egypt has become one of the biggest users of trade remedies in Africa, which raises the possibility of judicial review. Despite the establishment of specialized Economics Courts, the Administrative Court, Cairo division – commonly known as State Council – has exclusive jurisdiction in trade remedies matters. All judicial reviews must be lodged with the competent court by a lawyer whose name appears on the roll list of the lawyers admitted to Administrative Court within sixty days of the publication of the investigating authority’s final decision. The state Commissioner, which mostly consists of magistrates and retired judges, will assess the merits of the review and prepare a case for the judges. Judges do not have access to confidential information submitted in investigations and typically only consider administrative procedures to the exclusion of substantive issues. The Courts tend to rely on the use of outside experts, which cause significant delays in finalization of reviews. The Administrative Court may either find in favour of the applicant or the respondent and to date has never referred a decision back for reconsideration by the investigating authority or the Minister. Any Administrative Court decision may be appealed to the Supreme Administrative Court as the apex of the Administrative Courts may be appealed within sixty days from the date the Administrative Court hands down its decision. If appealed, the whole judicial review process could take as long as five years.