Brussels, 12/07/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 11 July, in Algiers, Algeria and the EU resumed talks on readjusting the schedule for tariff dismantling annexed to the association agreement signed in 2005. Their discussion comes within a 6th round of talks following the Algerian requests to defer lifting protection on its market for three years in order to protect an industry that is still not considered able to face up to European competition.
“Although Algiers and Brussels came to a prior agreement on deferral, the list of industrial products concerned by the freeze in tariff dismantling is still the subject of disagreement between the two parties”, the Algerian press explains, citing a comment from the official agency APS. It states that Algeria defends a list of industrial goods that it hopes to save from tariff dismantling, mainly in the steel, textile and electronics sectors and also for products from the automotive industry.
Several sources familiar with the dossier say that, for the agricultural chapter, an agreement was reached on 36 agricultural quotas for imports into Algeria benefiting from customs duty relief, some of which will now be removed and others readjusted. Also, a number of European standards imposed on Algerian farm produce are not accessible for Algerian exporters, criteria that Algeria hopes to renegotiate when the agreement is reviewed. Algerian media underline, moreover, that implementation of the association agreement has increased the trade deficit with the EU, other than for hydrocarbons from Algeria. The media cites a study carried out by the support programme for implementation of the association agreement. “For every dollar worth of exports to the EU, Algeria imports 20 dollars' worth”, the director-general for foreign trade, Chérif Zaaf, explains. (F.B./transl.jl)