By: Hana Saada
ALGIERS– The Minister of Trade and Export Promotion, Tayeb Zitouni, voiced, on Monday, on the organization of foreign trade, particularly the management of imports.
Guest of the Algerian Radio Forum, Mr. Zitouni first clarified that consumer products and raw materials of interest to citizens are not affected by seizure at the port level. The Minister recalled that the management of the foreign trade file has undergone some technical adjustments which have caused shortages of certain products.
Mr. Zitouni pointed to the bureaucracy in the management of foreign trade. To illustrate his point, he cited the example of an operator, who obtained an import license from the Ministry of Trade and who saw his goods blocked at the port, due to a missing document, a document whose validity date has passed during the import operation or because of a small error on a document.
“Why all this bureaucracy? Is it normal for goods to be blocked at the port when they were bought with currencies that were transferred abroad? wondered the minister, who announced that all goods imported with licenses and whose bank domiciliation operations have been carried out should enter the Algerian market.
In this vein, the minister said that “some bad decisions” taken in the past, “will be corrected”. He indicated that “all goods purchased, domiciled and authorized to be imported, must leave (ports) as soon as possible because they have an impact on national production”. According to him, these blocked goods are often raw materials, which are needed by factories, processors and the national market.
“In this regard, we have taken decisions and the goods concerned are known. We held a meeting last week and the list of these goods will be sent today (Monday) to the customs services for their release,” he said, pointing to an approach that consists of alleviating administrative obstacles and the liberation of the national economy.
He recalled that countries whose economies are developed apply measures to protect their national productions, like the European Union. In this regard, he pointed out that Algeria has also taken measures to protect its national production through, in particular, the establishment of the DAPS (Provisional Additional Safeguard Duty).
“Import is not a solid basis for creating added value and jobs”, he indicated, specifying that the products manufactured in Algeria and available in quantity and quality on the national market, will not be imported.
