Algeria To Import Less than 90.000 Cars During 2017

Committee in charge with determining the special quota for car import of the non-automatic licences for the year 2017, which is consisting of representatives from the ministries of trade, industry, agriculture, finance, customs and the Bank of Algeria, at the meeting, which took place in the headquarters of the Trade Ministry, where the list is expected to expand to include new products that are added to cars, cement and iron, like animal feed, apples.

Cars import quota that is set for 2017 will be less than 90.000 vehicles, according to preliminary figures that are agreed upon.

Sources from the trade sector told Echorouk that the final figures about import are not yet specified, but the cars that will enter the national market during this year will be less than cars which were imported in 2016, given the procedures that the Industry and Mines Ministry will adopt by the beginning of January 2017, through withdrawing the licenses from dealerships who do not adhere to embody factories in homeland for production, installation and assembly, which makes the quota of Algerians from new cars for this year less than 90.000 vehicles, as it was 83.000 cars last year, I.e it is lifted by 7.000 other cars, after appeals that were presented by the accredited car dealerships.

“Final list of products which import is banned, only after obtaining a license at the end of November at the latest estimate, will be soon released, as it is expected to be tougher, after the implosion of the trade balance during 2016, which is expected by the end of the year to reach $ 30 billion, which is a deceiving result, which requires more belt-tightening and rationalization of expenditure during the year 2017.”

In this context, the head of the Algerian Exporters Association, Ali Bay Nasseri, told Echorouk that the rate of imports during 2017 will be reduced, based on the first data that was provided by the Trade Ministry, about the trade deficit ratio during the first months of 2017.

“Exporters are still asking for larger facilities to raise the proportion of non-hydrocarbon exports, which are relatively reliable to face the specter of scarcity of oil revenues, and it comes to removing barriers to the exchange at the Bank of Algeria”.

Previously, government launched the application of the quota system in importing in the beginning of January, in the midst of the stringent measures that were adopted to reduce the import bill, after the aggravation of the ongoing oil crisis since mid-2014, which devastated half of the public treasury revenues.