Almost a year later, the situation of blocking Spain’s exports to Algeria remains entrenched and there is no real prospect of a solution. The diplomatic crisis between Algeria and Madrid due to Western Sahara, Trade with the North African country fell to record levels and Spain’s balance of trade and one of its major foreign markets is a blow to many national companies in Algeria.
Algerian Government Ordered to freeze automatic payments on June 9 For payments for products imported from Spain in retaliation for the turn in position in Western Sahara and Spain’s recognition of Morocco’s plan for the former colony. The trade boycott of Algeria resulted in the collapse of Spain’s exports to the country.
Since June, the director of Abdelmadjid Tebboune has banned the trade blockade and international sales. It suffered a historic collapse of 87%. Between June and March, the last month for which official data are available, Spain only 206.4 million against the euro 1.579 million According to the latest data announced by the Spanish Minister of Commerce under the Ministry of Industry, it was reached in the same period of last year.
diplomatic conflict therefore a broken 1.373 million euroIn just ten months the volume of sales to the North African country has increased compared to the previous year’s records, and this is in a context where Spanish exports as a whole have reached an all-time high and become one of the engines. revival of the national economy.
The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism began direct contacts with the European Commission months ago to launch an aid scheme for companies that have directly suffered the most from the consequences of the diplomatic crisis between Madrid and Algeria. And in parallel, the Director is also preparing, through ICEX, the launch of plans to help diversify markets for companies whose sales are most dependent on Algeria and where a third of their foreign business is concentrated in the North African country.
Ten-month trade boycott
Algeria, an ally of the Polisario Front, houses the Saharan diaspora in five refugee camps and competes with Morocco for hegemony in the region. The turn in Spain’s position in its former colony caused a diplomatic quake last June.
The Abdelmadjid Tebboune administration suspended the Treaty of Friendship with Spain, which had been in effect since 2002, on the day when President of Government Pedro Sánchez defended his new position on the conflict of the former Spanish colony in the Congress of Deputies: now the West, which Morocco has occupied since 1975, He evaluated the plan to give autonomy to the Sahara as follows: The “most serious, realistic and convincing” option to resolve the dispute.
A day later, the Algerian banking association ABEF issued a circular ordering all affiliates to freeze accounts reserved for commercial payments to and from Spain. This, along with historic declines in trade relations, has so far caused Spain’s exports to the North African country to collapse over the summer.
Spain exported 1 billion 888 million euros to the North African country in 2021 In 2019, the last year before the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, the figure rose to 2.906 million. For the whole of 2022, with the blockade already in place, sales fell markedly and amounted to only 1,021 million euros. Spain, in the midst of a diplomatic crisis, fell from Algeria’s second-largest foreign supplier in 2021 (15% of the total) to ninth in the second half of last year (with just 2% of Algeria’s total imports).
Algerian gas purchases
The blow to trade is felt in Spain’s exports to Algeria, but not in imports. The Algerian government has guaranteed gas source to the Spanish marketFocusing on almost all acquisitions of Spanish companies in the North African country, l.
In fact, national purchases from the North African country have continued to rise since the trade blockade order in Algeria. Between June and March last year, Spain’s imports rose to 6,077 million euros, 18.5% more than 5,127 million recorded in the same period last year. Especially in the last year, an increase due to the increase in natural gas prices.
Face and back: more sales to Morocco
The diplomatic crisis with Algeria ran parallel to the improvement in Spain’s relations with Morocco after the normalization of bilateral relations in March last year. And compared to the collapse of exports to one, sales to the other rose strongly last year. The Spanish government actually presents this development as the opposite side of the conflict with Algeria.
According to the Spanish Government, Spain established itself as Morocco’s first trading partner. Export reached record level in 2022 historical maximum EUR 11,748 million, 23.7% more. And this year the growth continues: Between January and March, sales to the Alevi country increased by 18.6% to exceed 3,250 million. These Spanish exports are carried out mainly by air and through the two major Moroccan ports in Tangier and Nador. Spain’s intention to open customs in Ceuta and Melilla clashed with Moroccan reluctance, which kept them closed.