APS : Monday, 24 April 2017
ALGIERS- Ways to remove barriers on trade flows and investments between Algeria and US were on the agenda of the 5th Algeria-US Council on Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), held Monday in Algiers.
Co-chaired by the general secretaries of Ministries of Trade Mohamed Helaili and of Industry and Mining Rabea Kharchi, respectively, and Assistant United States Trade Representative for Europe and the Middle East Daniel Mullaney, this session focused on the recent developments in the economic policies in Algeria and US and on the support to trade and investment through the strengthening of capacities.
Algeria’s membership of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the access to markets as well as the strengthening of the bilateral legal framework are also among the main themes of this session.
In his opening speech, Helaili expressed his hope to achieve “beneficial and fruitful results for a harmonious development of the economic and commercial relations between the two countries.”
“The United States is an important partner for us, it is our 6th supplier and 3rd customer,” he said.
In 2016, the overall volume of trading between Algeria and US reached USD5.6 billion, made up of USD2.3 billion of Algerian imports and USD3.3 billion of Algerian exports, against USD4.7 billion in 2015 (2.7 billion of imports and 1.9 billion of exports), said Helaili.
For his part, Mullaney stressed the need to expand the collaboration and strengthen trading with Algeria which is, he added, “a country in an economic transition phase “having made “progress” at the economic and regulatory levels.
He called on the Algerian side to take profit of the generalized system of preferences (GSP) which is a mechanism implemented by the United States in 1970 allowing the developing countries to benefit from exemption from customs duties and export taxes to the American market.
