President Tebboune chaired, yesterday, a meeting devoted to monitoring the progress of preparations
in anticipation of the revision of the association agreement with the European Union (EU).
In anticipation of the visit of a delegation from the Directorate-General for Trade of the European Commission (EC) to Algiers to discuss the revision of the association agreement between Algeria and the European Union (EU), the Head of State, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, yesterday chaired a meeting with the top officials of several sectors.
This is indicated in a press release from the Presidency made public to this effect. The meeting reviewed the progress of preparations for the revision of the agreement. It is therefore a question of carefully putting together the files which will be discussed during this important meeting with European partners.
A meeting initially planned for November 2024 before being postponed, by mutual agreement, to January 2025 due to the ministerial reshuffle, as announced during a meeting with the press in early December 2024 by the EU ambassador in Algiers, Diego Mellado. But, for the moment, no date has yet been set for this meeting.
Consultations on this agreement will be technical and will focus on commercial disputes between the two parties. Emphasis will be placed on rules of origin, sanitary and phytosanitary standards, as well as customs procedures.
“Imbalance”
These will in fact be the first consultations which will examine the file to arrive at measures likely to improve the level of trade and reduce the imbalance between the two parties. The agreement will be reviewed in its entirety, according to the European ambassador. “With Algeria, we want to look at the relationship in its entirety,” he said during this media outing, speaking of a “positive” partnership.
This meeting planned in accordance with the procedure launched last June by the EC will be followed by other meetings through exchanges of visits between the two parties to deepen the discussions and arrive at arrangements which are in the interest of Algeria. and the EU.
What is clear at the moment is that this is not an arbitration procedure. The two parties want to resolve the issues within a framework of mutual consent via the revision of the clauses of the agreement signed in 2002 and which entered into force in 2005.
A disadvantageous agreement for Algeria, according to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Community Established Abroad, Ahmed Attaf, who spoke on the matter on November 30. According to the minister, this involves reviewing the agreement “clause by clause”. As a reminder, the assessment made in 2015 over ten years (2005 -2015) showed an imbalance with non-hydrocarbon exports of $14 billion, while imports from the EU reached $220 billion.
Also, since the entry into force of the agreement, the volume of trade between Algeria and the EU has reached 1000 billion dollars with EU investments not exceeding 13 billion dollars (mainly in the hydrocarbon in exchange for profit transfers worth $12 billion over the period from 2005 to 2022, according to Ahmed Attaf.
The EU ambassador even recognized this imbalance. “The clauses of the agreement did not allow Algeria to diversify its trade although it was very favorable if we include hydrocarbons in the trade balance,” he indicated during one of his media releases.
