Brussels, 01/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - Given that the question of double energy tariffs has been settled and five bilateral agreements on market access have been signed at the WTO, Algeria is now moving forward along the road to WTO membership. Similar agreements with the EU and the United States would also open up doors for Algeria.
According to the Algerian trade minister, the thorny issue of double energy prices raised in the context of Algeria's talks on WTO accession has now been resolved. “This question has been settled in line with the provisions of the 2007 law on hydrocarbons and competition”, a government official announced on 28 February, cited by the Algerian press agency APS. Other issues raised during talks with the WTO working group are also said to have been settled, such as those relating to the customs regime and to protection of intellectual property rights.
Long delayed due to Algeria's status as an oil-producing country and its refusal to open up its services in the energy sector, talks for Algeria's WTO membership, launched in 1987, are thus making a major leap forward. After ten rounds of multilateral negotiations, which allowed 1,600 issues relating to its economic system to be tackled, Algeria has also concluded five bilateral agreements at the WTO on market access for goods and services with member nations, namely Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Uruguay and Venezuela. Its talks for similar agreements at the WTO with the EU and the United States, which would open wide the door of the multilateral organisation governing world trade, are at an “appreciable” stage, the Algerian trade minister has said. Algeria is also on the point of concluding its talks for bilateral agreements at the WTO on market access of goods and services with Australia, New Zealand and Switzerland, and similar talks that it is holding with Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Turkey and Ukraine are reportedly well on track. (EH/transl.jl)