Tabboun stresses Algerian government's desire to reduce imports bill

Algeria's Acting Minister of Commerce, Abdelmajid Tabboun, pledged that the Algerian government will make the impossible to reduce the value of imports to 15 billion dollars, but without prejudice to the fundamentals of the Algerian citizen.
Tabboun said, in statements for the Algerian state radio, that the government is unable to protect the economy, as the product market remains a seventh or eighth-tier luxury market. 
He also pointed out the deficit of the trade balance in 2016, amounting to 17 billion dollars, saying that the reasons for this deficit is importing some manufactured materials in Algeria or can be manufactured here because the licenses granted to persons to import $ 18 billion worth of unnecessary materials.
Tabboun also pointed out that about 30 million dollars were imported for biscuits, 75 million dollars for chocolate, 10 million dollars for olive trees, 11 million dollars for pastries despite their production in Algeria and 35 million dollars for importing hair oils. He also denied any intention of the public authorities to prevent the importation of any product from abroad, adding that this must be accompanied by tightening control in the context of respect for our agreements with our economic partners abroad.
Since the beginning of 2015, the Algerian government has imposed strict measures on importers to reduce the import bill. This bill has been reduced by many sectors such as the health sector, as well as car imports, which decreased during the first nine months of 2016 by more than 35% compared to the same period last year , while the bill of import of milk powder fell significantly, during the first eight months of 2015, reached to 770.26 million dollars compared to 1.47 billion dollars during the same period of 2014.
On the other hand, the Algerian government has also reduced Algeria's imports of meat of various kinds during the last period, before the decline of this rate more beginning in January 2016, after the issuance of the import license.
Despite the measures imposed by the Algerian government to reduce the import bill, the import dilemma still dominates the trade balance, which records a continuous deficit.