Brussels, 13/11/2014 (Agence Europe) - Algeria is continuing to debate whether it should join the WTO, as well as the conditions for strengthening its ties with the EU and opening up to the global markets. During the summer, these debates revealed sharp dividing lines.
At the beginning of the week in a radio interview, the Director-General of the national agency responsible for promoting external trade (ALGEX), Boukhalfa Khamnou, warned, “ with more than 60% of trade with the European Union alone, it is very difficult to envisage a better future for our exports in the current situation”. He said that Algeria was already a de facto member of the WTO, given its trade ties to the EU and called for this dossier to be “depoliticised”.
He also asserted that Algeria, “could not remain outside a world that had become a big village, forever” and said that it should not exclusively count on its exports of hydrocarbons (97%). (FB)