Budget-savvy Alger

Marseilles companies and elected officials are having a hard time accepting the 2009 law of complementary finances, adopted by Algeria in July. The text takes measures to limit Algerian imports, whatever the partner country, implementing the obligation to take documentary credit to pay for international purchases; 3% taxation for foreign-bought services; a total ban on importing used public works engines; and more. The optimism that followed the launch of the Union for the Mediterranean has decidedly died down.
On the Algerian side, this political project with economic implications has never garnered great popularity. The impact of the Finances law is “catastrophic”, according to the Marseilles-Provence Chamber (MPCCI). “Local businesses are the first to be affected, at a time when they’re already suffering from the local economic crisis. The volume of merchandise sent from the Marseilles port to Algeria was cut in half in August,” according to a recent press release. In late September, Annie-Marie Idrac, French Secretary of State for Exterior Commerce, went to the Bouches-du-Rhône department in a prudent display of support for its elected officials. “There is no need for us to judge the Algerian government’s economic policies,” she declared at a press conference.
Algerian imports amounted to nearly 27 billion euros in 2008, a sum that the North African country intends to lower by 5% by the end of the year, in a difficult economic context. At the same time, export profits, driven by the hydrocarbon sector, fell by 54% in the first semester. According to the Algerian minister of Agriculture, the country intends to save some 1.5 million euros on its grain and milk imports – costs that came to 5 billion dollars in 2008.  Local collectivities and the MPCCI have decided to go the Alger in the coming weeks in order to plead for Marseille’s economic cause. The task may be quite difficult, given the Algerian Prime Minister’s September declaration that “(…) we are looking out for the interests of Algerians, and Algerians alone”. The French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Algeria did not wish to comment on the matter when contacted.