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HomeLatest NewsSpain 'sells' the commercial alliance with Rabat to soften the political tension

Spain ‘sells’ the commercial alliance with Rabat to soften the political tension

Date: March 29, 2024 Time: 13:53:30

The Spanish Government focuses on economic and trade relations with its third non-EU partner, Morocco, at the gates of the first High Level Meeting (RAN) in seven years, to be held on February 1 and 2 in Rabat. This idea tries to divert the focus somewhat from the internal and external political tensions that surround the meeting, to which a large group of ministers will emerge, among whom there will be no representation from their government partner, United We Can.

The appointment intends to stage the new stage in the relationship that began after the president, Pedro Sánchez, transferred to King Mohamed VI in March last year that Spain demonstrated its autonomy plan for the Sahara as “the most solid, credible base and realistic” to put an end to the conflict”, in what meant a de facto 180 degree turn to the neutral position that Madrid had been maintaining for almost five decades in this dispute.

This movement by Moncloa made it possible to recover a relationship that ended up freezing in April 2021 as a result of the reception in Spain of the leader of the Polisario Front for humanitarian reasons, an event that was followed in May by the massive entry of thousands of migrants into the Spanish city of Ceuta with the permission of the Moroccan authorities. “Bilateral relations come from a prolonged period of tension of several years, which did not begin with the reception of Brahim Ghali,” Haizam Amirah Fernández, principal investigator at the Elcano Royal Institute, points out to this newspaper.

Before that, other tense episodes occurred, such as the closure by the Alaouite kingdom of the commercial border with Melilla in 2018, the disputes over territorial waters that erupted in the Canary Islands or the massive jump over the Melilla fence. The expert points out that the meeting is expected to “be the staging of an improvement in relations, which remains to be seen what it translates into”. The last time that the governments of both countries held a meeting of this type was in June 2015 in Madrid.

The Government reaches the summit without an internal consensus

Since then, there have been two scheduled appointments, in the years 2020 and 2021, which have been frustrated by the Moroccan authorities. Spain arrives at this meeting as a summit “without there having been an internal consensus on the evolution of the relationship. Not even fluid communication between the President of the Government and the rest of the political forces,” says Amirah Fernández. A division that is especially visible with its partners from Unidas Podemos.

The purple formation harshly rejected the new position regarding the Sahara, a position that has also provoked criticism from the main opposition party, the PP. The second vice president and head of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, the Minister of Social Rights and leader of Podemos, Ione Belarra, and the head of Consumption and federal coordinator of IU, Alberto Garzón, refused to attend the meeting to stage the schism in the Executive.

And the tension also affects Rabat’s relations with the European Union. The European Parliament introduced a resolution urging the African country to respect freedom of expression and release convicted journalists. This initiative went ahead within the framework of the investigation of what is known as “Catargate”, the corruption scandal in which Morocco would also be implicated. Socialist MEPs voted against the resolution and President Sánchez defended them, assuring that the best relations with its neighbor are in the interest of Spain.

Spain, Morocco’s first supplier and customer

It is not surprising that a business forum with the presence of Sánchez himself and his Moroccan counterpart, Aziz Ajanuch, will serve as the starting point for the summit, according to EFE. The Minister of Industry, Tourism and Commerce, Reyes Maroto, and representatives of the main employers’ associations of both countries (CEOE and the Moroccan CGEM) will also attend the meeting. Economic relations between the two countries intensified last year, once the pandemic was overcome.

Trade with Morocco increased by 33% in 2022 compared to the previous year to reach close to 10,000 million euros. As explained by ICEX in its latest report on the Alaouite kingdom, for several years Spain has been the number one supplier and number one customer for Morocco, which is our number one trading partner in Africa. Of the total Spanish exports to the continent, 45.5% went to our neighbor in 2019, 47.3% in 2020 and 51.3% in 2021 to exceed 9,500 million euros. A total of 17,644 Spanish companies exported to the country throughout that year.

Tourism is by far the main service export item between Spain and Morocco. In 2019, before the distortion caused by Covid, tourism represented almost two thirds of Spanish service exports to Morocco and almost three quarters of Moroccan exports to Spain. Transport and business services are the other two items of some importance and both will continue to grow in both directions in 2020 and 2021, despite the crisis.

* This website provides news content gathered from various internet sources. It is crucial to understand that we are not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of the information presented Read More

Puck Henry
Puck Henry
Puck Henry is an editor for ePrimefeed covering all types of news.
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