France will ask the European Commission to assess what it says is Algeria's non-compliance with its association agreement with the European Union, after accusing its former colony of pursuing an unofficial boycott of French companies.
"We ask the Commission to examine immediately the conditions for their activation," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pascal Confavreux told a news conference, referring to measures the EU association agreement allows when commitments are not respected. A French diplomatic source said Paris had decided to make a formal request because the situation for its firms was worsening.
Diplomats told Reuters in October that Algiers had in late July imposed a near-blanket ban on French imports and issued an instruction to officials to suspend urea shipments to France. The halt to urea exports puts at risk Algerian supplies that account for around 30% of French urea imports. In grains, Algeria — once the biggest overseas buyer of French wheat — has not imported any wheat from France since July 2024, with traders saying French supplies have repeatedly been excluded from Algerian state tenders without a formal ban being announced.
Ties between Paris and Algiers deteriorated in 2024 when President Emmanuel Macron backed a plan for autonomy for Western Sahara under Moroccan sovereignty. Algeria backs the Polisario Front, which has sought a separate state since Spain's departure in 1976. The two countries declared last year that the relationship was back to normal, but ties have since soured again.
The European Commission already registered a trade barrier in June 2025 alleging that Algeria has been blocking imports of French agricultural and food products since August 2024 by delaying or failing to issue import authorisations. That complaint, updated in March 2026, focuses in particular on dairy products. Algeria's embassy in Paris was not immediately available for comment.
