Spain's Economic Influence on Morocco

This is how Spain could destroy Morocco's economy.

Without a single shot.

Without a single ship.

Without moving a single soldier.

Just with a stamp at the Algeciras port customs.

Spain can destroy Morocco without resorting to the military, but

Is there really the will to do it? Can we do it? 85%

of what Morocco exports passes through Spain.

Imposing tariffs on Morocco...

would destroy its economy.

It sounds devastating, and there is some truth to it,

but it has a problem, and that problem is today's real topic.

Spain cannot impose tariffs on Morocco.

It's not that it doesn't want to,

it's that it can't.

Trade policy is not decided by Madrid, it's decided by Brussels.

It is the exclusive competence of the European Union,

since the Customs Union has existed.

So the correct headline is not 'Spain can destroy Morocco,'

the correct headline is 'Spain can ask Brussels...'

to do it.'

And Brussels has been doing exactly the opposite for years.

The 85% also needs to be put in perspective,

as a final destination.

Spain buys about a fifth of what Morocco sells to the world.

That 85-90% is something else.

It is Moroccan merchandise destined for the European Union

that transits through Spanish ports and roads. Algeciras, Tarifa... It is logistical transit.

and Tanger Med, which has direct lines to Marseille,

to Genoa or Rotterdam. More expensive and slower, yes, but it exists.

In other words, the leverage is real,

but it's not called a tariff, it's called customs.

And here is what Spain can indeed do alone, today,

without asking anyone's permission.

One,

apply with the utmost rigor the customs,

documentary, and phytosanitary controls that European regulations themselves allow.

A perishable product, 48 hours of inspection in Algeciras.

They are not a nuisance,

they are lost merchandise. It is legal, it is unilateral, it is devastating.

Two, the vote in Brussels.

The modification of the agreement with Morocco that includes Western Sahara crops in

the preferential treatment is still under provisional emergency application.

Apart from the labeling, it passed in the European Parliament by a single vote.

Whew, Spain has a lot of say in this.

And three,

the money tap of the Council of Ministers,

which approved more than 750 million euros to finance Moroccan

railway rolling stock ahead of the 2030 World Cup.

Let them do it themselves!

We'll sign that here.

Now comes the part that almost no one mentions, the boomerang.

Spain is Morocco's top trading partner.

More than 22.5 billion euros in trade a year.

And Spain runs a surplus of over three billion.

In a typical month,

Spain sells 1,118 million to Morocco, 3.5% of everything this country exports.

And buys 893. In other words, the tariff would punish 890 million and put 1,118 at risk.

Suffocating Morocco means hammering shut a market where Spain makes money.

The first victim wouldn't be... Rabat, it would be the Spanish exporter,

jobs in the Campo de Gibraltar, and an automotive industry that depends on components assembled

on the other side of the strait, and above all, the retaliatory lever which we've already seen this very week.

Rabat doesn't need tariffs,

all it has to do is open the border.

So the right question is not whether Spain has the weapon, the right question is this,

while the tomato sector reports a 31% drop

in Spanish production, and while the European Union allows labeling products from the Sahara

with regional designations that erase their origin,

we finance their high-speed train.

We have the weapon.

And we've been paying for the other's ammunition for 20 years.

I think the time has come to rethink absolutely everything we are doing.

And now Bundesregent can come out and tell us that we are so happy, they are a preferred partner,

they are a perfect partner, they are a privileged partner,

they are a magnificent partner, they are an absolute…

sorry,

let's start thinking about ourselves first,

are we going to start thinking about what we can do to use this crisis,

so that it becomes an opportunity for our farmers,

for our country,

for our interests, or are we going to keep thinking first about what others want and desire.

We have the economic weapon,

we have ways to execute it,

do we want to do it?

If not,

let's not complain the next time they go to Ceuta.