L’ACCESSION DE L’ALGERIE A L’OMC ENTRE OUVERTURE CONTRAINTE ET OUVERTURE MAITRISEE

Abstract

The article develops a political economy analysis of the Algerian accession to the World Trade Organization. It relativizes the trade and productive gains argument and focuses instead on the institutional transformations that the accession process, which could benefits to the Algerian economy, would bring. The article puts forward that Algerian domestic political economy compromises are the main factor explaining the exceptionally slow process of accession of Algeria to the WTO. This process induces regulatory transformations that affect the social, economic and political redistributive procedures which are the basis of the legitimacy and stability of the Algerian political regime. The article concludes that normative and institutional adaptations are highly conflictual and the overhang of the process will depend on the way the Algerian authorities are able to manage these conflicting interest.