Trade Minister: “Car Imports are still on the backburner”

The Minister of Trade , Mohamed Benmeradi, did not rule out the registration of a “blank year” in the import of new cars in 2017, referring to the ministerial committee tasked with studying the file which has not wound up its work until now, while revealing a new list of names of prohibited items of import, which will be released soon.

The minister said in response to a question asked by a “Echorouk” reporter on Monday, on the sidelines of the debate about the government’s plan of action at the council of the nation, that it is premature to provide a specific date for the release of licenses to import new cars for dealership agents within the quota for the current year, because the relevant ministerial committee is still working on this file.

As for the fears expressed by car dealers regarding the specter of an import blank year, the minister stated: “We cannot be sure, but all options remain on the table and we do not rule out this contingency unfortunately”, as he put it.

The Ministry of Trade has previously set the quota of importing cars in 2017 to 40 thousand units, which is a small number compared to that imported by the dealerships in previous  years, knowing that the car fleet for the year 2016 reached 83 thousand vehicles before being hiked to 98 thousand after the repeated appeals made to this effect by dealership agents.

The decision fell as soon as Abdelmadjid Tebboune left the Ministry of Trade, which he was running at that time on behalf of the government. The government has not yet given the green light to the car dealers to proceed with the imports.

In a separate context, Mr. Benmeradi revealed the drafting of a new list of materials and products banned from import, which will be released shortly, to be added to the lists previously announced by the former Tebboune government.

The current government, headed by Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia, maintained the system of import licenses, which was adopted after the stiff drop in the revenues of the public treasury due to the steady collapse of world oil prices.

Through this procedure, the Ouyahia government is seeking to slash the country’s import bill and to rationalize public expenditures estimated at billions of dollars annually.