Algeria has said it would like to speed up the revision that has already been requested of its association agreement with the European Union. Its request comes on top of the internal calls to pick up the pace of the reforms, against the backdrop of a depressed oil market and a fall in the country's income that has a worrying social impact.
The Algerian government thus announced at the end of last week that, along with the EU, it has "finished" the assessment of the association agreement between the two parties. "The final document" from this assessment will "soon be approved in Brussels", according to Ali Mokrani, the director of cooperation with the EU at Algeria's foreign ministry. An Association Council is expected in the medium-term and, with this in mind, work is progressing apace, according to Algeria's ambassador in Brussels, Amar Belani, who expects a conclusive meeting in March.
Belani speaks of a second operational document that traces the progress of the five partnership priorities that were defined jointly with the EU. On 7 December, the association committee had indeed adopted "21 recommendations" with a view to creating an "economic partnership" aimed at the "diversification of the economy and the promotion of exports apart from hydrocarbons" (Ed: scarcely 4-5% of Algeria's external trade), of know-how, of the digital economy and of an inclusive economy of a social nature". There is also a view to the next financial programming for 2018-2020, Belani says.
The framework of "investment and partnership relations between European and Algerian companies" remains key and is constantly underlined by the EU. Algeria has finished by softening its legislation on foreign companies by limiting the use of the 51/49 rule, which reserves the majority of Algerian companies' capital for its nationals, and discourages foreign investors, be they European or binational from the diaspora.
The assessment report mostly underlines the interest of making non-hydrocarbon trade dynamic and of correcting its imbalance. The same ambition is shown in the ongoing, but very slow, discussions at the WTO, where the negotiations stumble against the same obstacles.
The Algerian economist Abderrahman Mebtoul states in an analysis sent to EUROPE that there is a need for recovery in Algeria's economy, which is affected by the fall in oil prices and by a rise in debt: "the failure to gain in customs duties, and the existence of the association agreement (free-trade) with the EU for 2016 (...) is valued at $1.09 billion" ($1.27 billion in 2015). Mebtoul says he is a strong supporter of the economy first returning to order and of governance in order "to negotiate in a favourable balance of power". He also thinks that "the government's policy is being tossed between two opposing social forces – the annuitant logic shouldered by supporters of this and of the unfortunately dominant sphere, and the entrepreneurial logic (which is reportedly) smaller. This explains why Algeria is in this interminable transition, neither a competitive market economy with a social purpose, nor a managed economy, with progress in reforms being inversely proportionate to the oil price and dollar price".
Mebtoul says in his analysis that "the solution lies, not only for Algeria but also for the whole of the Maghreb and the African continent, in structural reforms, requiring a new governance, both local and central, and wide social cohesion". He calls for a joint effort in this: "with terrorism at our borders, regional understanding between the countries of the Maghreb, African residents, and an international understanding being vital to secure both our borders and our countries, and to fight against the trafficking of weapons and drugs which are partly financing the terrorism". (Original version in French by Fathi B'Chir)