Import Licenses Will Be For Sale Starting From 2018

Trade Ministry is preparing to re-review the import licensing system and distribute it radically by adopting new standards starting from 2018, such as selling the license to the importer who pays more, as part of an updated procedure to protect the national product and impose obstacles on imports from abroad, while a number of materials will be dropped from the license system similar to wood and bananas.

It is studying the file of import licenses, which appears to be in a new situation this year by identifying the quota of each product and offering it for sale to importers who are wishing to obtain it according to the increasing prices, financial guarantees.

Sources from the foreign trade sector, this procedure will include the local market and luxury goods as well, as this method will contribute to the pumping of funds in the treasury of the state on the one hand, and restricting the import activity on the other hand, and the increase in prices of imported materials compared to those produced locally, due to the high import costs and thus encouraging the boycott in the national market.

It is also expected to open the import again in front of a number of goods that are still banned from bank settlement since last June, such as cosmetics, which are entering the national market according to the method of the luggage, or the remaining stock is marketed to importers and traders which contributed to the rise in prices and the scarcity of a number of their varieties in the national market.

Chairman of the National Assembly of Algerian exporters, Ali Bai Nasri, said in a statement to “Echorouk” that the new procedure for the regulation of import licenses, although it will contribute to the closure of the game of import and reduce its size largely, but it will work on the other hand to raise the prices of imported materials in the local market and the weakening of the purchasing power of the Algerian citizen, especially since most of the materials that are consumed by the Algerians are imported from abroad.

The spokesman expected the completion of the current year with high import figures despite the measures taken by the government to reduce the bill. 

“Preliminary indicators indicate that the import bill will reach 43 billion dollars by the end of this month, while the export revenues will reach 32 billion dollars, including $ 2 billion exports outside the oil. A number of products that are manufactured in Algeria noticed a recovery in the international market and a wide demand, which contributed to the increase in the number of exports outside the fuel compared to last year.