The trade freeze measure between Algeria and Spain was lifted on Thursday, July 28 in the same way it was instituted 50 days earlier.
That is to say by a note to commercial banks from the Association of Banks and Financial Institutions (ABEF), without any other official communication.
The suspension of bank direct debits for transactions of goods and services from and to Spain, with the exception of gas, followed that of the treaty of friendship, good neighborliness, and cooperation between the two countries, announced by Algiers on June 8.
Either the same day as a speech by the President of the Spanish government, Pedro Sanchez, in which he again defended his support for the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara.
This new position, revealed on March 18 by the Moroccan royal palace, was considered a historic reversal of Spain on the issue.
The suspension of the friendship treaty was directly linked to the persistence of the Spanish government in “justifying” this reversal.
“The Spanish authorities have engaged in a campaign to justify the position they have adopted on Western Sahara in violation of their legal, moral and political obligations as the administering power of the territory which weighs on the Kingdom of Spain until the decolonization of Western Sahara be declared accomplished by the United Nations”, had indicated the communiqué of the Presidency of the Republic announcing the suspension of the 20-year-old treaty.
The same day, the note from the ABEF on the freezing of direct debits for imports and exports from and to Spain reached the banks.
The lifting of the trade freeze came as the Spanish government showed no signs of backing off on its reversal.
However, this does not mean either a weakening of Algeria or the end of the crisis between the two countries. Trade and economic measures are only one facet of Algiers’ reaction.
The position of ambassador in Madrid is still vacant
The appointment, on July 12, as ambassador to Paris of Said Moussi, hitherto stationed in Madrid, had been interpreted as a sign that the Algerian authorities had decided to leave their diplomatic representation in Spain vacant for a long time yet.
Algerian diplomatic sources had even assured the Spanish newspaper El Confidencial that relations between the two countries will remain blurred as long as Pedro Sanchez and his Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares remain in office.
These sources had indicated that Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune “is not prepared to reconcile with Spain while Sanchez is at the head of the government and José Manuel Albares is the head of Spanish diplomacy”.
At the end of last April, Amar Belani, Special Envoy in charge of Western Sahara and the Maghreb countries at the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, had already warned that the crisis with Spain was not an autumn cloud, meaning, in response to Pedro Sanchez who had called for the return of the Algerian ambassador to Madrid, that those who speak of “Algeria’s temporary anger are not in tune with reality”.
The real beginning of the end of the crisis will therefore be the appointment of an ambassador in Madrid, preceded by warning signs of a return by Spain to its neutrality vis-à-vis the Western Sahara issue.
This risks waiting for the elections and a possible change of government in Madrid, knowing that the entire Spanish political class, apart from the PSOE (socialist party, in power), does not support the government in its approach to Algeria and the Sahrawi question.
As for the lifting of the freeze on commercial transactions, it undoubtedly stems from other considerations. Algeria could not hold such a suspension for long with a member country of the European Union with which it is bound by an association agreement.
A pragmatic decision?
Madrid seized Brussels, precisely in the name of respecting the clauses of the association agreement and, as of June 10, the high representative of the EU for foreign affairs, Josep Borrell, and the vice-president of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, gave their support to Spain, indicating in a joint declaration that “the EU is ready to oppose any type of coercive measures applied to a Member State of the European Union”.
“Algeria is rectifying and re-authorizing trade with Spain, which it vetoed 50 days ago. The European Commission probably intervened to enforce the Algeria-EU agreement and prevent it from discriminating against a member state. However, the Algiers-Madrid crisis persists,” writes El Confidencial journalist Ignacio Cembrero, a specialist in the Maghreb countries.
Without even this probable intervention from Brussels that the Spanish journalist suggests, Algeria is very concerned about respecting its international commitments, as it has shown since the beginning of the crisis.
What will it actually be?
Despite an international context that makes gas a very effective lever, the Algerian authorities have always reiterated that they will respect their contractual obligations concerning the delivery of gas to Spain.
And that’s what was done. The lifting of the suspension is also probably dictated by the repercussions of the cessation of transactions on the Algerian economy itself.
It is certain that Spanish companies have been very affected by the sudden halt in exports to Algeria, which represent 2 to 3 billion dollars a year, but the fact remains that the Algerian economic fabric is also impacted, given that many companies import inputs from Spain.
These are some pragmatic elements that could explain Algiers’ decision to lift the measure suspending trade with Spain.
It remains to be seen whether, in fact, Algerian importers will normally resume their relations with suppliers from a country with which the springs have broken and in the context of a serious political and diplomatic crisis between the two countries, which remains intact. .
