Importers Precluded From Paying Bills For Shipping Companies In Algeria

The Ministry of Trade started, starting this December, adopting stricter procedures to reduce the country’s import bill by restricting the procedures for entering and leaving commodities through ports and airports, and reducing the cost of imported services, especially with regard to the huge amounts that come out in hard currency to pay the bills of shipping companies, notably by requiring importers to pay the freight In the maritime “fob” transport contract abroad and not by the importer in Algeria, so that the person who sends the freight or container is the one who bears this bill.

This decision raised a sharp disapproval of the importers, as this measure is included in the framework of the new restrictions imposed on the economic operators, 15,000 of whom were forced to freeze the commercial register during the last period due to the decline in economic activity and the movement of entry of goods, especially during the period that followed the February 22 popular protest movement, while the Ministry of Trade is seeking to re-update the overall list of importers, exporters and owners of trade registers.

This comes at a time when exporters are asking for special procedures to facilitate the export process, especially with regard to transport planes, as they submitted a complete file to the Ministry of Trade to take advantage of cargo planes to transport exports abroad, especially to Russia and the Gulf countries, with the process of exporting one kilogram of dates through a plane of Qatari Airways, which is currently sponsoring the transportation of Algerian goods abroad, towards Qatar for example, is being set at 70 dinars, at a time when the value of transporting a container by sea aboard ships exceeds 3000 dollars, which is a huge amount, as a single plane transports up to 500 tons.

To this effect, the exporters are urging President Mr. Abdelmadjid Tebboune to implement the pledges he previously made to exporters during the recent opening of the twenty-eighth edition of the Algerian Producers’ Exhibition at the Safex Exhibition Palace in Algiers, where the head of state underlined that the state was ready to grant transportation facilities to exporters with on focus the imperious need to safeguard and to shore up the national economy.