Quote Originally Posted by Fuchs View Post
I also showed that even at the peak of the wheat price, wheat imports were still a tiny fraction of overall imports, even a small fraction of the trade balance deficit.

The whole focus on wheat / bread is wrong.
Fuchs, ok, I understand what you are saying.

I think this is the right time for a compairison. Egypt's overall trade deficit is about $23 bn. The 8 million tons of wheat that Egypt imports each year represents a trade volume $3.5 bn or 7% of overall imports. According to you, this is but a tiny fraction. Therefore, it cannot be an important factor in the current Egyptian situation.

Let us take a look at these figures from another perspective. In 2010, crude oil represented 8% of US overall imports, a percentage that is comparable to the volume of wheat imports in Egypt. Is it a fair assessment to say that oil dependency is a negligible factor in US internal and external politics?