One year after the rupture of relations linked to the Western Sahara file, trade between the two countries is practically interrupted
Since the severance of relations between Spain and Algeria in June 2022, all trade between the two countries has practically ceased, with the exception of gas and oil.
Algeria imposed sanctions following Spain’s change of position on Western Sahara, leading to a drop of more than 80% in Spanish exports to Algeria, according to data analyzed by Middle East Eye.
The latest data from the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Tourism shows that between June 2022 – when Algeria imposed trade sanctions on Spain – and March 2023, exports from Madrid rose to a paltry amount of $213 million.
In comparison, the value of goods exported to Algeria between June 2021 and March 2022 amounts to more than 1.6 billion dollars.
In March, Spain exported only $14 million of goods, which forced the ministry to start discussions with the European Union (EU) to set up a mechanism to help Spanish companies more affected.
“We tried different approaches, for example between the chambers of commerce [of Algeria and Spain], but we received refusals,” Marin Orriols, director of the international branch of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, told.
“Algeria wants the Spanish government to accept the UN resolution on Western Sahara and will keep the pressure on until [they win]. Basically, this is a political problem that affects the economy of hundreds of Spanish companies.”
“Italy and France are taking advantage of the situation”
Marin Orriols believes that Spain and in particular Spanish companies have been left to their fate while other EU countries are profiting from the crisis.
“The European Union is doing nothing to protect Spain against this decision by Algeria, and Italy and France are taking advantage of the situation to cover exports to Algeria that would have left Spain”, underlines- he.
The conflict in Western Sahara has long been a source of tension between the two countries.
Spain was the former colonial power in Western Sahara and its withdrawal in 1975 led to a territorial dispute following which Morocco seized the territory. Algeria supports the self-determination of Western Sahara.
“We still don’t know what Algeria really expects from Spain to get out of the current situation,” Zine Labidine Ghebouli, post-doctoral researcher at the University of Glasgow and analyst specializing in Algeria, told.
“Trust between the two governments has not been so weak for decades.”
While Algeria is a long-time supporter of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), Spain adopted a more neutral position before moving closer to Morocco’s position last year and recognizing its territorial claims. Bilateral relations have since been strained due to this disagreement.
“While a clarification from Madrid on its position on Western Sahara would have broken the ice a few months ago, this is no longer the case today and Madrid finds itself in a difficult position as an ally of Morocco, from Algeria’s point of view,” adds Zine Labidine Ghebouli.
“If a clarification from Madrid on its position on Western Sahara would have broken the ice a few months ago, this is no longer the case today”
– Zine Labidine Ghebouli, researcher at the University of Glasgow
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune called Spain’s change of position last year “ethically and historically inadmissible” and suspended a twenty-year-old treaty of friendship, good neighborliness and cooperation that had guided until relations between the two countries.
The European Union, which is responsible for ensuring the implementation of the free trade agreement between the institution and Algeria, has so far only managed to obtain from the Tebboune government a commitment to study current trade restrictions.
“For the moment, Algiers is still putting up with maintaining the dispute with Madrid, given that it is still able to sell its gas”, specifies Zine Labidine Ghebouli.
Bureaucratic obstacles
Between June 2022 and March 2023, Algeria sold over $6.5 billion worth of gas and oil to Spain while being buoyed by high energy prices resulting from the war in Ukraine.
In the long term, however, one can wonder “if a dispute with Madrid would be beneficial for the image of Algiers, which wishes to deepen its relations with Europe”, warns the researcher.
Trade frictions in Algerian ports over Spanish goods also show no sign of letting up. Madrid reported more than 146 incidents to the EU so Brussels could raise the issue with Algiers.
Spain registered 41 incidents with Brussels in September 2022, 46 in October and 62 in February 2023. Since the implementation of sanctions last year, goods entering Algerian ports with Spanish certificates of origin have come up against bureaucratic obstacles or are simply blocked.
The Algerian boycott particularly affects the region of Valencia, which together with Catalonia accounted for more than half of exports to the Maghreb country.
Products such as beef, ceramics, paper and spare parts were the main forms of trade for Spanish companies in Algeria. According to the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce, the void has been filled by France, Italy and Portugal.
With no sign of improving relations between the two sides, Eduard Soler i Lecha, North Africa specialist and associate professor of international relations at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, stresses that relations are likely to remain to their “historically low” level currently observed.
In a context where the international energy supply fluctuates in the context of the war affecting Europe, Spain’s relations with Algeria take on an essential character.
Products such as beef, ceramics, paper and spare parts were the main forms of trade for Spanish companies in Algeria
“We share a maritime space with Algeria”, recalls Eduard Soler I Lecha, specifying that Algeria, like Morocco, forms an important element of the Spanish neighborhood policy.
“Algeria represented a very important strategic relationship, although very dependent on a single issue, that of energy,” he adds.
Until this crisis, Algeria was Spain’s main gas supplier. This is no longer the case today since the United States is also taking the opportunity to ship some of its more expensive liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Spain.
In the medium term, Madrid cannot find a solution to improve its relations with Algeria, according to Eduard Soler i Lecha.
“The problem is that any initiative by the Spanish government to resolve this crisis with Algeria would involve taking decisions vis-à-vis Western Sahara that could jeopardize the reconciliation process that Spain has started with Morocco. “, he explains.
Risk of the migration crisis
If Madrid were to antagonize Morocco, a migration crisis could easily ensue that would overwhelm the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, located on Morocco’s northern Mediterranean coastline.
In recent years, the Spanish government has invested significant human and reputational capital in its relations with Morocco.
“That probably explains why this crisis with Algeria has lasted so long. Spain would pay a heavy price, namely a new crisis with Morocco, a country with which relations are particularly sensitive”, develops Eduard Soler i Lecha.
While relations with Algeria have largely focused on energy, those between Morocco and Spain are denser, warns the professor. Other factors also come into play for Madrid, including immigration, counter-terrorism, straits and fisheries, among other issues.
Even in the event of a new government in Spain, any warming of relations with Algeria “would raise suspicions” in Morocco as to possible concessions on Western Sahara, affirms Eduard Soler i Lecha.
This would be a very delicate situation for whoever leads the Spanish government after the elections to be held later this year.
Moreover, warns Eduard Soler I Lecha, the dangerousness of the tensions around Western Sahara is accentuated by the fact that it is no longer a question of “a frozen conflict”.
“It’s not yet a war, but there are hostilities on both sides of the separation wall and more aggressive rhetoric on both sides,” he explains.
At the moment, however, Spain’s policies in North Africa are being held “hostage” by tensions between Morocco and Algeria and it is becoming almost impossible for Madrid to maneuver, he concedes.
“What is perhaps even sadder is that Spain has very little means to change the dynamics of this conflict between Morocco and Algeria at the moment,” notes the professor.
