Madrid gets impatient, Rabat hesitates [INTÉGRAL]

Next Tuesday, a plenary session of the Spanish Congress of Deputies (Lower House) will discuss a proposal from the Popular Party (PP) asking the government to negotiate with Morocco the opening of customs in Sebta and Mellilia within 90 days. PP deputies expressed their frustration, saying that the new phase of relations with Morocco “remains without results, and particularly affects the commitment to reopen customs” of the two Spanish presidents.

“The opening of customs should have been carried out a long time ago, in particular to normalize commercial relations between the autonomous city and Morocco, which would benefit traders and citizens”, insisted the spokesperson for the Sebta government, Alejandro Ramírez.

Mullet women

As a reminder, the crossings were unilaterally closed by the Moroccan authorities in March 2020, during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Since the official resumption of diplomatic relations between Rabat and Madrid in April 2022, the two governments have committed to returning to normal movement of people and goods, without success so far.

While the Spaniards ardently desire this reopening to loosen the grip on the two cities, hesitation persists on the Moroccan side. “There is a fear that the situation will degenerate and that we will return to the smuggling practices of yesteryear“, tells us a source close to the matter. Before the borders were closed, some 9,000 Moroccans, including the famous “mule women”, engaged in these dehumanizing practices, with disastrous economic consequences for the national economy.

According to estimates, the shortfall for Morocco would be 12.5 billion dirhams. The Kingdom wishes to definitively break with past practices and wants to put in place all the necessary technical and human arrangements before a potential reopening of these border crossings. During the visit of Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares to Morocco last December, the two countries committed to respecting the road map drawn up.

The Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Bourita, then justified the delay in the reopening of land borders by “technical and not political problems”.

Economic asphyxiation

Cross-border traffic is crucial for the residents of Sebta and Mellilia. The two citiesexport to the Kingdom goods representing, approximately, the equivalent of Spanish exports to Australia“, underlined a study by the Moroccan Institute of Strategic Intelligence (IMIS) published in February 2022. Cross-border trade represents the largest share of the GDP of Sebta and Mellilia.

According to data from the Spanish General Directorate of Taxes, smuggling between Sebta and Fnideq amounts to between 6 and 8 billion dirhams per year. Since the closure of the borders, Sebta and Mellilia have been crumbling under the weight of real economic asphyxiation. This situation pushed the Spanish government to develop a socio-economic rescue plan for them.

This plan provides, among other things, for the inclusion of the two cities in the European Customs Union, the reform of the economic regime and the granting of tax advantages to promote new sectors of activity, such as tourism and gaming. money online.