Doha – Like clockwork in Madrid’s newsrooms, whenever Morocco achieves a diplomatic or economic breakthrough, an all-too-familiar scene unfolds: Spanish media outlets scramble to paint doomsday scenarios and sound alarm bells.
This time, Donald Trump’s differentiated tariff policy has triggered yet another wave of hand-wringing across the Iberian press.
Announced last week, Trump’s new tariff regime places Morocco among a select group of countries facing a 10% baseline tariff on exports to the United States, while Spanish products – along with all EU goods – will be hit with a doubled rate of 20% starting April 9.
The policy, embedded within Trump’s “Liberation Day” economic plan, has sent Spanish media into a frenzy of speculation about potential business relocations and economic threats.
El Mundo, Spain’s leading daily, wasted no time in forecasting grim consequences, with its analysis portraying a stark scenario of an impending business exodus.
“Companies will seek to restructure their manufacturing and supply chain to countries where the US has imposed lower tariffs,” warned Paul Amberg, a US partner at Baker McKenzie in Madrid, in statements to the newspaper.
“Much depends on whether the tariffs are lasting or merely used as a negotiation tool,” he added, while acknowledging that the consulting phones haven’t stopped ringing.
“Much concern is putting it mildly,” the publication disclosed, as international trade law firms reported being inundated with anxious inquiries from businesses scrambling to navigate the new tariff landscape.
Fear-mongering concerning Spain’s sliding edge
The paper’s economic experts stoked fears by suggesting that “Morocco is already snatching traffic from Spanish ports due to its more relaxed sustainability regulations,” while pointing out that some of its “star exports to the United States coincide with Spanish ones: automotive, fertilizers, and electrical equipment.”
Okdiario struck an even more alarmist tone, framing the tariff differential as a calculated geopolitical move. The outlet stressed Morocco’s position as “a strategic ally of the US in the mouth of the Mediterranean and in the crucial heel of westernmost Europe,” hinting at implications extending to “defense and sensitive intelligence tasks.”
Not one to hold back, the publication declared that “this competitive advantage that Trump grants from this week to the Moroccan economy is an added problem for Spain,” while raising the specter of a “transfer of investing companies that choose to produce in Morocco to sell in Spain.”
To drive home its point, the outlet cited the example of “Moroccan green beans visible in supermarkets” as a harbinger of things to come.
IESE professor and Cobas AM Chair holder Javier Díaz-Giménez added fuel to the media firestorm, declaring he had “no doubt” that companies were already studying growth opportunities in countries with lower tariffs.
“There will be arbitrage of all kinds,” he observed in El Mundo, noting the Spanish agricultural sector and its newfound “incentives to grow in Morocco.”
El Debate meticulously detailed Spain’s vulnerability, citing 2024 export figures to further stress the stakes: “Spain exported €18.179 billion to the United States, including €1.240 billion in olive oil and vegetable fats, €1.095 billion in pharmaceutical products, and €824 million in essential oils and perfumes.”
“The fear of an eventual production relocation from Spain to Morocco in the medium term,” El Debate lamented, “is compounded by the immediate impact of tariffs: in the multiple products produced in both Spain and Morocco, the US now finds in the Alawite kingdom a substantially cheaper seller.”
Tariff implications worldwide
The rollout of base tariffs this Saturday rattled international markets. The VIX index – Wall Street’s “fear gauge” – skyrocketed 50.93% to 45.31 points, its highest since the Covid-19 pandemic crash. In a mere 48 hours, US markets witnessed an astronomical $5.2 trillion erasure of value.
Morocco joins an exclusive club including the UK, Turkiye, Australia, Argentina, and Chile facing only the baseline 10% tariff. Meanwhile, neighboring Algeria faces a 30% rate and Tunisia 28%.
The EU’s reaction has been swift and severe. Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič branded the measures “harmful and unjustified” after discussions with US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
French President Emmanuel Macron went further, denouncing Trump’s decision as “brutal and unfounded” and calling for a pause in European investments in America “until we have clarified things with the United States.”
The Spanish media’s heightened reaction reveals underlying fears over Morocco’s growing economic edge. As analyses suggest, this tariff advantage adds another layer to existing concerns about business migration southward.
“This is perhaps a greater and more immediate fear,” El Mundo concluded, cautioning that “in the medium term, the impact would be that many supply and export chains that pass through Spain will pass through one of its neighbors.”
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