Brussels, 09/12/2013 (Agence Europe) - Algeria wants to speed up its accession to the WTO, a issue on which it has consistently sought the support of the EU. A number of obstacles still remain, however.
A press release from the Algerian Department of Trade revealeded that Mustapha Benbada, the country's trade minister had pointed out, in Bali, Indonesia, on Thursday 5 December, that the country wanted greater diligence. The minister regretted that the accession process had been “so long and too demanding” and that “no limit had been defined” on accession modalities, which “does not guarantee a balance between rights and responsibilities”. He added that the process “demands important commitments from candidates, going beyond their level of development and WTO rules”. He considers that this “imposes greater concessions even on developing candidate countries than those subscribed to by member states themselves, including the most developed countries”.
Algeria points out that the negotiations that began in 1995 are continuing at the specific workgroup and bilateral negotiations are still being pursued. According to the minister, “good progress has been registered… six bilateral agreements have been finalised (Cuba, Venezuela, Brazil, Uruguay, Switzerland and Argentina)”.
One of the obstacles frequently pointed out by the EU is the so-called “51/49” rule, which requires that foreign companies can have only a minority stake in the capital of companies set up in Algeria. During a visit to Paris on the sidelines of the France-Africa summit, the prime minister, Abdelmalek Sellal, said that Algeria would “keep this principle”. Addressing the international diplomatic academy on Saturday, he explained that “we cannot do anything else for the moment and we can not sell off the country”. He underlined the imperative of protecting an industry that had been “neglected” for years. (FB/transl.fl)