Brussels, 21/12/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Sunday the Algerian minister for trade, Mustapha Benbada, quoted by the national press agency APS declared that: “Algeria has just made a request to the European Union (EU) to revise the pace at which tariff and customs duties are dismantled, as advocated in the Association Agreement between the two parties”. The minister explained to the press that this request mainly concerns the postponement until 2020 of the deadline for the total removal of barriers. This was initially planned for 2017 in the Association Agreement, which entered into force on 1 September 2005. He is proposing that the deadlines are staggered for the gradual and ultimate removal of these barriers and that instead of the initially planned deadlines of 2012, 2015 and 2017 they are postponed until 2015, 2017 and 2020 respectively.
Benbada also indicated that “discussions with the EU also focus on the introduction of a list of 1749 non-eligible industrial products. The majority of these are intended for end-users and 36 of them are agricultural and agro-industrial products.” The list of non-eligible products will be proposed in the Arab Free-Trade Zone discussions (AFTZ). This general approach towards foreign partners would be a measure aimed at protecting the national industrial fabric, explained the minister to Algerian journalists: “This approach is expected to facilitate an additional transition phase for our companies, so that they can prepare for the opening up of trade”. In his opinion, “removing the customs barriers would kill 'made in Algeria' products”. It would also contain the risk of affecting the level of tax and custom revenues: “losses in customs revenue increased to $2.5 billion between 2005 and 2009 and will reach $8 billion by 2017”. According to Cherif Zaâf, the director general of external trade at the department of trade, “for every dollar worth of goods exported to the EU, Algeria imports $20”. (F.B./transl.fl)