Spain’s recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara and its support for Rabat’s plan for the former Spanish colony led Algeria to impose trade restrictions on our country two years ago, as a form of sanction for the crisis arising from Madrid’s change of position with regard to the Sahara.
Algeria supports the independence of the Sahara (in fact, the Polisario Front has its main base on Algerian territory) and this led it to maintain irreconcilable differences with Morocco which involved other actors, such as Spain or France.
Today, Algeria has decided to focus on lift all restrictions on foreign trade with Spain. Algerian banks completed the lifting this Thursday, although Algeria began to make concessions from the end of 2023, when diplomatic relations between the two countries resumed after the appointment of a new ambassador in Madrid.
“Approved intermediary banks must take into account that direct debit operations for foreign trade operations to and from Spain “must be treated in accordance with applicable exchange regulations.”“, noted this week the Central Bank of Algeria, which now authorizes export and import banking operations normally.
“Now they have made the imports official”continues the Algerian Central Bank, of the rest of the productsa procedure that the Professional Association of Banks and Financial Institutions (ABEF) of Algeria blocked in 2022, after the suspension, on June 8 of the same year, of the friendship treaty with Spain.
Gradually
Since January this year, Chicken and meat import procedures with Spain have already been authorized and now all restrictions have been lifted and Spanish-Algerian trade relations are completely normalized, which they never affected the gas. In fact, Spain imports more gas from Algeria than from any other market and this agreement remained flawless during the two years of blockade.
In recent months, Spanish exports to Algeria have experienced a slight recovery after the Algerian government already lifted restrictions on certain products earlier this year.
According to the State of Commerce, in May there were already “a partial recovery of Spanish exports” to Algeria, which had been reduced to a minimum from the summer of 2022, after Algiers recalled its ambassador to Madrid for consultations and suspended the Treaty of Friendship in response to the government’s support for the Moroccan autonomy plan in the Sahara.
Throughout this year, trade with Algeria has recovered was not widespreadbut mainly focused on exports of goods transport vehicles, followed by components for the automotive sector and beef. Other goods, such as clothing or cosmetics, began to sell signs of healingalthough before summer they were still weak.
Exports of 163 million
Foreign Trade affirms that during the first two months of the year, exports from Spain to Algeria reached 163 million euros, of which 133 million capital goods. These data contrast with 17 million recorded between January and February 2023 but we are still very far from the 334 million that there were during the first two months of 2022, when the diplomatic crisis had not yet occurred.
Exports of transport equipment already amount to 126 million euros this year, against zero million in 2023 and 4 million in 2022. Exports from the automotive sector are also higher than before the crisis and already amount to 11 million, compared to 2 million last year and 5 million in 2022.
Concerning the total count for 2023, according to Commerce, there was exports worth 331.8 million euros, 67.5% less than the previous year. Already in 2022, trade with Algeria collapsed in the summer and was closed that year. 1,021 million, 45.9% less than in 2021, when exports amounted to 1,888 million.
New steps
This new approach to Algeria experienced this week has already resulted in questions such as The Alicante Chamber of Commerce has resumed its commercial missions with Algeria. The most striking thing is that, while relations with Spain are normalizing, Algiers is entering a new crisis with France.
It was last Tuesday that the former French ambassador Xavier Driencourt announced that Algeria had ordered to block levies for trade with France under the pretext that French President Emmanuel Macron expressed his support for the Moroccan plan on Western Sahara as “the only basis” for resolving the conflict.
Algeria stops “punishing” Spain and does it with Francefor whom everything remains “blocked”. Algeria’s exports to our northern neighbor are paralyzed even though they have already resumed with Spanish ports.
France is the “bad” one now
Algeria is now attacking France and its president Emmanuel Macron, after the latter’s approach to Mohamed VI and his proposal on the Sahara, with which it gave a turn to its foreign policy similar to that given by Spain in 2022which cost it the application of trade restrictions by the Algerian side.
“With Mohamed VI we decided to write a new book together. The present and future of Western Sahara are part of the “Moroccan sovereignty”Macron highlighted this during his visit to the Moroccan Parliament on October 29.
The Algerian authorities decided to withdraw their ambassador to Paris last June when Macron was already talking about the French turn on Western Sahara, and now, since last Tuesday, after Macron’s remarks to the Moroccan Parliament, Algiers has ordered Block direct debits for trade with Francea measure similar to that which will now be lifted with Spain, a fact revealed by the former French ambassador Xavier Driencourt on social networks:
“We inform you that as of 05/11/2024, import samples originating and/or coming from France will no longer be processed by local banksexport operations to France are also affected.
