Egyptian businessman Naguib Sawiris said the trade tensions between the US and China would not impact Egypt as the Arab world's most populous country doesn't have commercial disputes with either party.

However, it is essential that both US and China arrive at a compromise because the two trading giants need each other, Sawiris said on the sidelines of a press conference last week.

A BBC report in September, quoting Morgan Stanley research, said a full-blown escalation of the trade dispute could knock 0.81 percentage points off the global gross domestic product. The report said the US has imposed three rounds of tariffs on Chinese products this year totaling $250 billion worth of goods.

But China needs to open its market to investors in the same way Chinese companies can access markets in the region and elsewhere, he said.

"I tried to invest in the telecommunications sector in China 10 years ago, but this sector was restricted to Chinese companies," he said.

China also needs to address US concerns about the protection of intellectual property, according to Sawiris.

He also called upon the Egyptian government to strengthen and support the local industry so that Egypt is unaffected by international economic disputes.

(Reporting by Eman Hamed; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@refinitiv.com)

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