Boukrouh said the ban would be removed

By Omima Ahmad, IOL Correspondent

ALGIERS, July 3 (IslamOnline.net) – The Algerian government is to scarp a law article banning the import of alcohol to meet a requirement for joining the World Trade Organization (WTO), a move expected to raise a deep controversy in Parliament.

A vote put forward by the Islamic party El-Islah (Reform) in the legislature approved the ban on the import of alcoholic drinks. The vote was also backed by the then dominant party, the National Liberation Front.

But Minister of Finance Noureddine Boukrouh said on the sidelines of a parliamentary session on the introduction of commercial facilities last week that the measure would be removed.

He gave no reasons, but press reports were awash with speculations that the government's negotiations with the WTO were deadlocked due to questions raised over the country's ban on imported alcohol.

The report said the United States and Belgium criticized the ban, which in effect only concerns wine, and asked Algiers to adapt its legislation to the WTO rules.

Presidential Decree

Algerian diplomats said the matter would be discussed in parliament in the coming months.

But El-Islah officials said the ban is hard to be thrown out as it was signed by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika himself.

"It is a Presidential decree, whose removal requires another law among other parliamentary procedures," said Ahmed Abdel-Salam, the party's spokesman.

Abdel-Salam refuted claims the scrapping is necessary for joining the WTO.

"The world body allows the ban to remain in place citing religious considerations, but it also asks for no exports of such a commodity."

El-Islah failed last year to pass other proposals calling for a ban on the local production of alcohol and destroying smuggled alcohol stockpiles confiscated by the customs office.

Thriving Business

Algeria still has alcohol factories with over 40,000 workers making a living out of the business. The country had been the main source of the French wineries during occupation.

The Ministry of Agriculture had also planned to face the wave of drought gripping the country for over ten years now with planting crops that need no much water such as grapes.

The ban on production and consumption of alcoholic drinks could thus affect the Ministry's plans for a thriving business.

The November ban was also met with opposition by some cabinet members.

Finance Minister Abdelatif Benachenhou had earlier said the November vote was contrary to the country's international commitments and came at an awkward timing as it was in the middle of negotiations to join the WTO.

Benachenhou said the oil and gas rich North African country - which exports wine - risked tit-for-tat reprisals.

"Political Maneuvers"

Analysts deem the debate raised on alcohol trade as exaggerated and politically-motivated.

"This is just political wrangling, with nothing to do with preserving morality," said Abdel-Qader Gomaa, managing director of Al-Bilad newspaper.

"Otherwise, the consumption of alcohol should have also been banned."

Reports had said that the symbolic vote on the ban came to curry favor with the Islamic-oriented El-Islah, a charge Abdel-Salam denies.

The vote came less than six months before Presidential elections, in which Bouteflika made a landslide victory.

Progress for Algeria to join the WTO has been slow since the creation of the organization in 1995 with Algiers first offering documents about its commercial regulations only in 1996.

The first working group to discuss Algeria's adhesion met in 1998.