**Half the commercial vehicles crossing the border each day (or around 150) were found to be carrying goods such as milk, eggs, vegetables, and fertilizer from Tunisia into Libya,**<sup>24</sup> even though it is illegal to export food products under Tunisian law. Fertilizer sales to farmers are subsidized in Tunisia, which is not the case in Libya.

**Other goods, in particular tobacco, alcohol, and medicines, are not transported via the Ras Ajdir border crossing when entering (for tobacco and medicines) or leaving (alcohol and medicines) Tunisia.** These goods are carried over the border in both directions via contraband routes through the Tunisian-Libyan Saharan route using convoys of all-terrain vehicles.

# **Estimates of Informal Trade with Algeria**

**There are numerous crossing points on the Tunisia-Algeria border. As a result, goods transported from Algeria do not appear to follow a well-defined route in the same way as cross border traffic between Tunisia and Libya.** In addition, the particular demographic and geographic peculiarities of the Tunisia-Algeria border offer different opportunities from those on the Tunisia-Libya border. A large proportion of the border runs through a mountainous rather than a desert region, with the population strung out along the border and in some cases right on it (some villages are in fact divided by the border). As a result, there are many more opportunities for informal trade at the local level all along the border without needing to go through crossing points controlled by customs officials. According to the interviews we conducted, it is clear that there has been a steady increase in informal trade activities along substantial sections of the border in the last few years.

# **Data gathered during the fieldwork conducted for this study show that the way in which informal**

**trade functions is fairly simple.** Tunisian buyers cross the border into Algeria, choose the goods they want, place their orders, and hire a transporter to carry the goods across the border into Tunisia.<sup>25</sup> Payment for the goods and the transport is made when they arrive in Tunisia. Transport costs are around TND 200 for a van-load (around 1 ton) of ordinary goods, but can reach TND 1,000 for more sensitive products such as tobacco or alcohol.

# **In practice, neither the Tunisian nor the Algerian transporters ever set foot in the other country.**

**Box 3: Key stages in the transport of merchandise between Tunisia and Algeria**

1. An Algerian transporter brings the merchandise from a point of sale in Algeria to an individual household on the Algerian side of the border.

2. The homeowner hides the merchandise in his house until the opportune moment to take it to a prearranged point on the border and hand it over to his Tunisian neighbor, who is often a family member.

3. The Tunisian homeowner then keeps the merchandise in his house on the border until it can be delivered.

4. A Tunisian transporter goes to the house on the border, quickly loads his van (in certain cases, loading takes place in a specially adapted garage owned by the homeowner) and delivers the load to

> 24 Informal export trade most probably passes through the Ras Ajdir crossing point and takes place at night.

> 25 ICG (2013) confirms that Tunisian informal traders rarely cross the Algerian border waiting for at the border for transshipment.

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