The 13th round of the multilateral negotiations for Algeria’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) is planned for the first quarter 2015, said Minister of Commerce, Amara Benyounes in an interview with APS.

He said that this meeting “will be decisive as it will allow Algeria to be fixed on the date of its accession to the WTO which counts 160 member countries.”

“The next round is going to further advance our file and most likely we will know the timetable of our accession to the WTO if it will be the end of 2015 or not,” he added.

Besides, the minister said that 2015 will mark the 20th anniversary of the WTO and the holding in Kenya of its 10th ministerial conference scheduled from 15 to 18 December, “two facts that will be a good opportunity for Algeria to join the WTO.”

Following his meeting last October with Alberto Pedro D’Alotto, the chairman of the working group on Algeria’s accession to WTO and with Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary-General of UNCTAD, last December, Benyounes should meet early this year, with senior officials from the United States and the European Union to discuss this accession.

“The US and the EU are the largest partners in the membership file. We need to reach bilateral agreements with these parties,” he stressed.

However, Benyounes affirmed that Algeria accession to the WTO “is not an obsession” for the Algerian government: “The political decision has been made and we are discussing and negotiating at our pace. We must say that accession to the WTO is not an obsession but a well thought-out project. “

In this regard, the minister ensures that Algeria’s accession to the multilateral organization “is not going to sell out the economic interests of the country”, recalling that Algeria has made many investments in recent years, particularly in the industrial public sector with over $ 12 billion.

These investments “must reach maturity and start yielding fruit,” he insisted.