STATE TRADING

QUESTION POSED BY THE EUROPEAN UNION REGARDING
THE NEW AND FULL NOTIFICATION OF TUNISIA[1]

The following communication, dated 25 October 2016, is being circulated at the request of the Delegation of the European Union.

_______________

Question

The EU welcomes the detailed notification submitted by Tunisia and acknowledges the efforts done for its preparation. We would like to note our concern on the Pharmacie Centrale de Tunisie, which detains the monopoly for the importations of medicines. First, since May 2013 exporters are forced to accept to take charge of the dinar depreciation over the next 4 years, in order to sell any new pharmaceutical product. Then, as stated in the notification, the price of the medicines is subject to the approval of the Minister responsible for trade and the margins for each distribution level are set by the State. Consequently, the public prices are standardized and identical throughout the country. The EU also notes that the notification does not contain the relevant statistics.

The EU would like to invite Tunisia to submit detailed information on the criteria used by the public authorities to define the margins for each distribution level as well as the missing statistical information.

__________