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SV Algerian and Soviet Ministers enter room
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SV Ministers seated (2 shots)
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SV Soviet Minister (left) and Algerian Minister sign agreement (2 shots)
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SV Ministers exchange documents and sign again (2 shots)
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SV Cameraman
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SV Ministers shake hands and exchange documents.
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Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Under the new Soviet-Algerian agreement signed in Algiers on Friday (February 18), trade between the two countries will have doubled from 1971 to 1973.

The Soviet Union will increase its purchase of Algerian oil by a third, and is to buy more industrial goods--mainly steel products made at a mill built with Soviet technical assistance.

The agreement, signed by the two countries' Foreign Trade Ministers, also provides for Soviet imports of citrus fruits, olives, dates, olive oil and cork. Soviet exports to Algeria will include coke, cement, cotton, aluminium, and some consumer goods.

SYNOPSIS: Trade between Algeria and the Soviet Union will have doubled in three years under a new agreement signed in Algiers of Friday. By 1973, trade exchanges will have reached about a hundred million pounds (sterling)--twice the 1971 level.

The agreement was signed by Soviet Foreign Trade Minister Nikolai Patolichev--on the left-and Algeria's Foreign Trade Minister, Mr. Layachi Yaker. The two men also agreed to meet in Moscow within the next few months to seek ways of increasing commercial relations even further.

Under this latest agreement, the Soviet Union will increase its imports of Algerian oil by a third to one million tons a year. Wine imports will remain at one-hundred-and-ten-million gallons--that's about two-thirds of Algeria's wine production, and fills the gap left when France stopped buying it. Other Soviet imports from Algeria will include citrus fruits, olives and olive oil, dates, cork and steel products, while Algeria will import Soviet coke, cement, cotton, aluminium and some consumer goods. No agreement was reached, however, on Algeria's demand that more of the trade should be carried in Algerian shipping.