Experts recommend Algeria-EU Association Agreement review to address “trade” imbalance

APS : Sunday, 21 February 2021

ALGIERS-The Algeria-European Union (EU) Association Agreement should be reviewed in order to address trade and economic “imbalance” between the two parties, recommended the participants in a study-day
on the assessment of this agreement held Sunday in Algiers.
“It is necessary to revise this agreement and we must go back to negotiations,” suggested Professor Berchiche Abdelhamid on the first study day on the Algeria-EU Association Agreement organized by the National Institute for the Study of Global Strategy (INESG) themed “State of play and prospects,” stressing that “the negative point (of the Agreement) relates to the trade and economy.”
“The trade balance is very unfavorable to Algeria. The Algeria-EU Association Agreement has generated neither foreign direct investment, which is virtually nil, nor jobs and economic growth,” he lamented during the two-day meeting.
The former professor at the Ecole Supérieure de Banque (Higher School of Banking) also said that “the European Union has itself recognized this satiation and has made efforts to redress the bar a little”. Nevertheless, he referred to “advantages” regarding the sectors of justice and higher education.
Professor at the Ecole supérieure de Commerce d’Alger (Algiers Higher School of Trade), Derghoum Mahfoud stressed the “flagrant imbalance in trade between the EU and Algeria, especially as there is less foreign direct investment (FDI) and few exports from Algeria to the EU.”
Deploring the preponderance of raw materials in Algerian exports to the EU, he stressed the need to review the Association Agreement or readjust it.
Director of Bilateral Trade Relations at the Directorate General of Foreign Trade at the Ministry of Commerce Derradji Samir stressed the need to take advantage of the benefits of the Algeria-EU Association Agreement.
In order to succeed in diversifying the Algerian economy, Derradji said that it is necessary to attract sufficient foreign direct investment (FDI) and to benefit from the contribution of foreign know-how as provided for in the agreement itself.

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