The Minister of Trade and Export Promotion, Kamel Rezig, launched on Tuesday in Algiers a national awareness campaign on “products containing colours and symbols detrimental to the moral values of Algerian society”, with a view to “alerting the various sections of society to the spread of these products”.
Speaking on the sidelines of the launch of this national campaign organised under the slogan “Protect your family… Beware of products with colours and symbols that violate our moral values”, Mr Rezig said that the aim was to protect the moral interests of the Algerian consumer in accordance with Decree 09-03 of February 2009 on the protection of consumers and the fight against counterfeiting.
According to the minister, this campaign will involve all sectors, in addition to Trade, Interior, Religious Affairs and civil society through consumer protection associations and security bodies, in this case the gendarmerie and the national security, in order to fight against the spread of these products, stressing the importance of “raising awareness of the fight against the spread of these products in markets, shops and homes”.
The inspection operations at the markets and borders carried out by the Ministry of Commerce in coordination with the National Security services last year made it possible to seize and destroy 38,542 units worth 3.5 million Da, including school articles and children’s toys containing colours and symbols contrary to religion and the values of Algerian society, in addition to 4,561 units of the Holy Qur’an containing pages with colours that are contrary to religion, he added.
The trade departments “will be firm with each economic operator who sells these articles which are harmful to morals and the moral interest of the consumer”, while at the same time strengthening controls, with the customs and border police services, on imported articles, while applying “very severe sanctions against importers of these articles”.
For his part, the Director General of Economic Control and Fraud Repression at the Ministry of Commerce, Mohamed Louhaidia, said that, as part of this campaign, a note will be published on the websites of the ministry and consumer protection associations, as well as on their official pages on social networks, to raise awareness among economic operators and consumers about the risks of the spread of products containing these colours and symbols on the national market.
The campaign, scheduled to run until January 9, also aims to raise awareness of colours and symbols that undermine religion and society’s moral values to distinguish them from the seven colours of the spectrum, he said, adding that photos and samples of products containing these colours and symbols sold on the national market will be shown to the public.
For his part, the president of the Algerian Federation of Consumers, Zaki Hariz, said that the federation will contribute to this campaign, particularly through activities in schools to raise awareness of “the risks of these symbols and colours which are contrary to the values and traditions of Algerian society and harmful to the moral interests of the consumer, especially children”.
The National Secretary of the General Union of Algerian Traders and Craftsmen (UGCAA), Issam Bedrissi, for his part, stressed the union’s commitment to the success of the campaign through awareness-raising of traders and economic operators to encourage them to stop selling these products and to contribute to the moralizing of commercial life.
