Tunisia: Random import deepens economic crisis and exacerbates trade deficit

Majdi Al-Saidi-Tunisia

The movement is slowly emerging in the market of Sidi Boumandel, one of the largest and most popular markets in the heart of the capital, Tunis, which is visited daily by tens of thousands of customers from the popular class in search of their staples of consumer goods, clothing, perfumes and cleaning agents imported from abroad, whose prices are tempted by low-income market leaders.

It is difficult for many to pass through Sidi Boumedil Street, which constitutes the bulk of one of the largest markets offering products imported mostly from China, Turkey, Algeria and Europe, which hikers rush to acquire, while economists consider it an example of random supply and a scourge threatening the economy.

At a time when the Tunisian Institute of Statistics announced that the country's trade balance deficit reached negative records, the phenomenon of indiscriminate importation of goods and other consumer goods has intensified and the markets have been invaded in an unprecedented manner in recent years.

A serious economic scourge
Several organizations have launched a panic in the economic circles calling on the authorities to put an end to the flooding of markets with unknown and useless substances, while a number of traders called for intensifying border controls to combat smuggling in light of estimates that the parallel economy has taken 55% of trade in Tunisia.

Bassem al-Jalili, one of the traders in the textile sector, holds the responsibility of indiscriminate importation and flooding of markets with anonymous goods to the parliament, which failed to enact strict laws to regulate swaps and hold accountable smugglers and gangs that destroy the local economy.

"The phenomenon has become a nightmare threatening small traders and industrialists, the number of smugglers and random import networks increased after the 2011 revolution, we are living in difficult economic conditions because of the flooding of markets with imported goods, and we fear complete bankruptcy," says Jalili.

Amara, one of the traders and industrialists in the fabric, tells Al-Jazeera Net "We can no longer keep up with the pattern of random importation, whether regulated by collusion from the windows or non-regulated smuggling, Chinese goods swept the markets and caused productivity decline in industry, As a result, thousands were referred to unemployment, along with the health damage caused by these materials. "

Random imports have deepened the trade deficit, which, according to official figures from the Tunisian Institute of Statistics, reached 16 billion dinars (about $ 5.8 billion) at the beginning of November, after the country's imports grew by 20% in the first 10 months of this year.

According to the same source, Tunisian trade recorded a large deficit with some countries, which reached with China about 5 billion dinars (1.8 billion dollars), and with Turkey about two billion dinars (700 million dollars).

Tunisia imports many materials, mainly consumer goods (34%) and energy (23%), while processing materials (10%).

In 2018, Tunisia placed a list of 204 unnecessary products on the list of supplied materials, but the pattern of indiscriminate imports continued insane.

Worsening unemployment
Economist and economist Mohammed Saleh Al-Janadi explains the widespread phenomenon of indiscriminate importation in the absence of a clear economic policy, and the failure of the state to achieve the equation between adjusting the market through import and maintaining the local industrial fabric.

"Indiscriminate import is a scourge of the economy. It is divided into two categories: legalized random supply, which is under legal cover but does not comply with market laws. It has serious implications for the country's trade balance. "

He believes that the fight against the phenomenon is mainly through the adoption of import half of the factory, because the economy suffers from the supply of materials that can be produced locally, and depleted the supply of Tunisia's reserves of foreign currency and deepens the decline of the dinar.

Although the beneficiaries of this phenomenon are a number of merchants, the disadvantage of indiscriminate import appears to be disastrous for local institutions that failed to win the bet of competition, especially since the supplied materials are sold at differential prices that tempt the citizen in light of the deterioration of his purchasing power, according to al-Ghanadi.

The spokesperson considers that the employment sector has also been affected because the economic difficulties of the food, footwear and garment factories due to import have resulted in workers being referred to unemployment.

According to reports by professional organizations, 80% of Tunisian factories are threatened with closure and the dismissal of thousands of workers as a result of declining production, while official sources confirmed that 300 factories of shoes and clothes have closed their doors to exacerbate their losses, leaving about 40 thousand workers remain unemployed.