In view of accelerating the establishment of domestic production and improving trade balance deficits, Algeria introduced in the Supplementary Finance Law for 2018 a provisional additional safeguard duty (the so-called “DAPS”) set at between 30% and 200% applicable to goods import transactions.
The list of 1095 products covered by the DAPS was published on 29 January 2019 (Order of 27 January 2019). This Order follows Executive Decree 18-230 of 25 September 2018 that announced the publication of a list of goods and corresponding DAPS.
Rather than fully prohibiting imports of certain products or imposing import licenses, as had been the case since 2016, Algeria chose to subject imported goods to the DAPS in addition to Customs duties. For example, beef will be subject to a surtax of 50%, furniture 60%, chocolate 70% and cement 200%.
This measure, temporary in principle, has however not been time-limited by the Order.
The order was adopted despite the opinion of the Competition Council, which considered the measure dangerous for the consumer’s purchasing power insofar as it risks creating monopoly situations in certain national production sectors and systematically aligning domestic producer prices with import prices regardless of the price/quality ratio.
If you have any questions please contact Céline Van Zeebroeck.
