ALGIERS, Aug 24 (AFP): Days ahead of a final deadline, activation of a long-planned Algeria-EU trade deal risks unravelling as political and business leaders in the North African country warn it will undermine economic sovereignty.
The deal is meant to come into effect on September 1, a decade and a half after the two sides initially agreed their Free Trade Agreement as part of a wider pact setting out economic, social, cultural and judicial cooperation.
But as the clock ticks, concern has grown in Algiers about the coronavirus-hobbled economy's ability to cope without tariffs on steel, textiles, electronics and vehicles - protective measures originally meant to end three years ago.
For Ali Bey Nasri, chairman of Algeria's exporters' association, "the agreement was badly negotiated from the start."
"When the deal was ratified in 2005, the EU had only 15 members, while now it is 27 strong and in a few years the membership will grow," said Nasri.
A free trade zone would be a "disaster for the national economy", he added.
In early August, President Abdelmadjid Tebboune called on Commerce Minister Kamel Rezig to reassess the European Union deal.
The head of state insisted that the deal "must be the subject of special attention, asserting our interests for balanced relations", an official statement said.
Algeria's hydrocarbon-dependent economy is in an extremely fragile state, as the effects of policies around the world to contain the coronavirus pandemic have hit already diminished oil and gas revenues.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts that Algeria's economy will shrink 5.2 per cent this year.
