ALGIERS- The diplomatic crisis unleashed between Spain and Algeria, last June, has not only had consequences in the energy sector but has also had an impact on others spheres.
The political crisis between Algeria and Spain has heavily impacted trade relations between the two countries. Mired in a crisis with Algeria, Spain is, in turn, experiencing difficulties in several sectors, including tourism and the ceramics industry, which suffered colossal losses following the loss of the Algerian market.
The severance of trade relations between Algeria and Spain has caused losses in the ceramics sector of 25 million euros in just 50 days, reported, Friday, the Spanish daily El Mundo.
This situation left the ceramic sector without the possibility of trading with its second export market and with losses of 25 million euros, as confirmed by El Mundo Fernando Fabra.
50 days without sending their product to Algerian customers, which has meant that they have difficulty reaching the 120 million turnover with the North African country planned for 2022 in a normal context, which they still do not know when it can be resumed.
Algeria suspended, in June, with an “immediate” character, the Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighborhood and Cooperation with Spain for its “unjustifiable” change of position on the Western Sahara as announced in a statement by the Presidency of the Republic. On March 18, Spain reversed its traditional official position towards the conflict and endorsed in writing the Moroccan proposal to give autonomy to the former Spanish colony.
Algeria has decided to suspend the Treaty of friendship, good-neighborliness and cooperation concluded with Spain on 8 October 2002.
“The Spanish authorities have embarked on a campaign to justify the position they adopted on Western Sahara in violation of their legal, moral and political obligations as an administering power of the territory which rests with Spain until the completion of the decolonization of Western Sahara is declared,” said the source.
“These same authorities, which bear the responsibility for the unjustified shift in their position since the statements of March 18, 2022, through which the current Spanish government provided its full support for the illegal and illegitimate formula for internal self-government proposed by the occupying power, are working to perpetuate the colonial de facto policy resorting to fake justifications”, the statement added.
“The position of the Spanish government is inconsistent with the international legitimacy imposed on it by its position as an administering power and with the efforts of the United Nations and the new personal envoy of the Secretary-General, and it directly contributes to the deterioration of the situation in Western Sahara and the entire region”, explained the same communiqué.
“Accordingly, Algeria has decided the immediate suspension of the Treaty of friendship, good-neighborliness and cooperation that it concluded with Spain on 8 October 2022 and which has provided, thus for, a framework for the development of relations between both countries,” concluded the source.
