TunisDuring the last week, there has been an apparent clash between the Algerian government and its bank management over the application of a blockade to commercial relations with Spain. On June 28, the Association of Banks and Financial Institutions of Algeria (ABEF) sent a letter to its members ordering the restoration of normality of financial flows with Spanish banks, suspended on June 9. However, less than 48 hours had passed when a confusing statement from the Algerian Foreign Ministry warned that there was no “backward march” in relations with Spain and that the ABEF could not make decisions on matters of national sovereignty.
The contradictory signals from the Algerian institutions have plunged the Spanish companies with interests in Algeria into a state of uncertainty and anxiety. “We had a bank transfer pending, and it has already been done. We were also able to remove a commodity from the port about a week ago. We thought the problem had been solved, but today I was informed that there is not way to get approval from customs at the airport to remove another shipment, I don’t know why. This is an ordeal,” explains the manager of a Catalan company present in Algeria. The Spanish administration has not been able to help them interpret the situation, since, according to ARA, the communication channels with Algeria are “broken”.
The root of the current conflict lies in the decision of the executive of Pedro Sánchez to break with nearly 50 years of neutrality in the Western Sahara conflict to embrace the Moroccan theses. For Algiers, the turn represented a “betrayal”, as the country gives political and military support to the Polisario Front and perceives Morocco as its historical rival for regional hegemony in the Maghreb. After withdrawing its ambassador to Madrid, on June 8 the Algerian government suspended the Treaty of Friendship with the Spanish state, and a few hours later the ABEF sent a circular to its members ordering the interruption of bank direct debits with the Spanish banks, which strangled bilateral trade.
Jamel-Eddin Bou Abdallah, president of the Algerian-Spanish Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIAE) is optimistic about the re-establishment of commercial relations between the two countries. “Talking to several people involved here, also from the administration, the dominant opinion is that the Algerian government has the will to normalize trade relations. The problem is that we are in full vacation, and many officials are not in their places, ” says the head of the CCIAE, who estimates that full normalcy will be reached by mid-August.
“Many banks are already working normally in transactions with Spain, and we hope that the rest will do so in the coming days”, adds the top official of the CCIAE, who recognizes that most of the obstacles today are ALGEX, the agency that manages customs procedures Bou Abdallah attributes the contradictions experienced by some companies at customs to the slowness in getting the new instructions to all the links in the chain of the bureaucratic trade gear From his point of view, the confusing Foreign Affairs note does not invalidate ABEF’s previous circular, but must be interpreted as a message that refers to political relations, not economic ones.
Algerian analyst Otman Lahiani agrees in assessing that commercial normalization does not imply that the end of the political conflict is closer. “The crisis remains open. More than a gesture towards Madrid, the decision to allow bank transfers with Spain responds to a defense of the country’s interests, since some companies had been harmed by the lack of Spanish parts and raw materials, putting jobs at risk .” Lahiani dismisses ABEF’s circular as a rebellion by the banking sector against the government, since the banking industry is a semi-state organization and receives direct orders from the Ministry of Finance. The Algerian regime is so opaque that the interpretations of the discrepancy in recent days regarding relations with the Spanish state are diverse.
Algerian companies that import Spanish products have complained about the discrimination represented by the exception made in the natural gas sector, since bank transfers were never frozen. “We have been stopped for a month and a half. If we reached three months it would be a disaster. It is not easy to change suppliers in such a short time. For example, 70% of the chicken consumed in Algeria comes from Spain. is noticing the inflation, which by contagion also affects the other meats”, says Bou Abdallah.