<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, received this Thursday in Madrid the President of the Autonomous City of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas, to whom he guaranteed a “gradual” opening of the commercial customs office in El Tarajal, which will operate “in a conventional manner and without any other limitations” than regulations and logistics.</strong></h4> This was explained by Vivas himself at the end of the meeting, which took place at the headquarters of the Ministry in the Viana Palace and in which he thanked Albares for his efforts “to achieve the normalisation of our border, which is in Ceuta, but which is the border of all, it is the border of Spain and it is the border of Europe”, according to the website of the Ceuta Government. According to Vivas, the normalisation of the border, in terms of traffic and the transit of people, is having very positive effects for Ceuta “which now have to be completed by establishing a commercial customs office, in relation to the transit of goods, both in commercial expeditions and in the travellers regime”. “The minister has told us that the commercial customs office is going to be opened gradually, and that it will be a commercial customs office that will operate in a conventional manner. This means, without any other limitations than those that derive from the regulations that are applicable or from the logistical capacities that exist at any given time”, he added. For their part, official sources from Foreign Ministry assured that, during the meeting, Albares and Vivas addressed “the issue of the passage of goods through a commercial customs office and issues related to European regulation” and agreed to “stress the importance of the current excellent moment of the bilateral relationship with Morocco and of continuing the current cooperation on migration matters with the neighbouring country”. “I have met with the President of Ceuta, Juan Jesús Vivas, to discuss issues of interest to the Autonomous City, including the passage of goods,” Albares said on social media. “We support Ceuta in everything that benefits it,” he added. <div class="lRu31" dir="ltr"><span class="HwtZe" lang="en"><span class="jCAhz ChMk0b"><span class="ryNqvb">The same sources indicated that the minister also had a telephone conversation with the president of Melilla, Juan José Imbroda, to whom he conveyed his “commitment to the Autonomous City in everything that is beneficial for it, including the passage of goods,” according to what Albares declared through social networks.</span></span></span> <div class="OvtS8d"></div> <div id="ow275"><strong style="color: #212121; font-size: 1.1em;">Customs</strong></div> </div> The opening of customs is one of the highlights of the joint declaration signed on April 7, 2022 in Rabat by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and King Mohamed VI, after the surprising decision of the Spanish Executive to recognize the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara, which marked a reversal of Spain's traditional position on this issue and opened a new period in bilateral relations. If its opening were to take place, it would be the first commercial customs office in Ceuta throughout its history. The Melilla crossing has been closed since 2018. After carrying out three pilot tests throughout 2023, Spain and Morocco reached an agreement for the first passage of goods to take place on January 8, but the process was ultimately frustrated after two vehicles loaded with products from Spain were forced by the Rabat authorities to turn back, once they had crossed the two borders, for alleged technical reasons. Just a week later, Albares acknowledged in a press conference that the governments of Spain and Morocco hoped to be able to officially open the border crossings of Ceuta and Melilla on January 8, but finally determined that there was still “work to be done” to solve possible “technical problems”. In the case of Ceuta, there was a second shipment of goods on January 15, which was successful, and a third on January 16, which was also frustrated. As for the conditions imposed by Morocco for accepting the opening of the crossing, government sources indicated at the beginning of this month to the newspaper ‘El País’ that the agreement provides for a limited transit of goods, with only one truck per day in each direction at each customs post, at specific times. Spain, according to the sources, will only be able to export certain goods, such as hygiene and cleaning products, household appliances and electronics manufactured in the autonomous cities, while Morocco will be able to transport all types of fresh products, such as aggregates, fruit, vegetables and fish, without the need for sanitary control. The PP has requested that José Manuel Albares be summoned to explain in Parliament the “conditions imposed” by Morocco for the reopening of the commercial customs of Melilla.
