Brussels, 08/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - The EU and Algeria will hold a new round of discussions in Algiers on 16 February, according to the Algerian daily newspaper El Watan. The subject on the agenda for this session is tariff dismantling for industrial products.
“The dossier remained in suspense over the seven rounds of negotiations which brought the two parties together, as, according to declarations from the Ministry of Trade, Algeria was keen to use the negotiations on this chapter in the best possible way, to try to guarantee gradual dismantling, in order to protect the industrial sectors which could be undermined by the agreement”, the newspaper reported (our translation). The association agreement provides for the “gradual dismantling of two lists of European products for import to Algeria, one of which will be completely dismantled in 2012 and the other in 2017, when the free-trade zone enters into force”, the newspaper continues. “But at the same time, the document gives both parties the opportunity to freeze the application of this dismantling for three years if an imbalance to trade is created and only one party benefits”, which Algiers is not happy about, having observed that its sales not including hydrocarbons have grown little or not at all. (FB/transl.fl)