Rabat – Morocco and Spain are developing plans for a future commercial customs office on the Tarajal border in Ceuta, according to converging Spanish and Moroccan reports.
The agreement was signed at the Royal Palace of Rabat during Pedro Sanchez’s April visit, which established the mutual commitment to “the full normalization of the movement of people and goods,” including “the appropriate customs control devices and people at land and sea level,” one Spanish media outlet confirmed.
Although no precise timetable has been set for launching the joint customs office, the Spanish news website explained that the new tax agency plans to “develop the necessary infrastructure as soon as possible and have the staff required for its execution.”
The agency is intended to ease and control the passage of products between Morocco and Spain, allowing produced and fresh commodities to flow freely in both ways, the Spanish news outlet added.
“We are clear that it is the most effective formula to put an end to a typical trade or smuggling, a primary objective shared with the neighboring country,” the Spanish media quoted government sources as saying. “As with the re-establishment of transit through the border, the path of commercial customs will be managed as a gradual process.”
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In 2018, Morocco suspended commercial customs with the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla to crack down on the trafficking of illegal products into Morocco from the two cities.
The North African country doubled down on its decision amid a bitter diplomatic feud with Spain in 2021, halting all contacts with Madrid after the Spanish government hosted the leader of the Polisario Front — the militant group seeking independence in southern Morocco — in April last year.
However, the recent diplomatic breakthrough between Spain and Morocco and protests by both Spanish and Moroccan border workers prompted Rabat and Madrid to agree on a phased reopening of the crossing points between the two countries.
