Six months after Algeria cut ties with Spain following a spat over the disputed Western Sahara, trade between the two countries remains paralyzed, said an Algeria official in the trade and services sector.
“Everything has stopped,” head of Algerian-Spanish Circle of Commerce and Industry (CCIAE) Djamal Eddine Bouabdallah told the All About Algeria website.
Algeria’s decision to freeze trade with Spain in June is still in effect, he said, adding that no breakthrough was in sight.
The trade exchange between Algeria and Spain amounts to $6.5 billion annually, half of which covers the gas and oil sectors.
All About Algeria said Bouabdallah did not disclose what the figure has reached now after ties were suspended.
He stated that the number had “dropped considerably”.
Several sectors have been harmed by the diplomatic dispute, most notably chemical products, the food industry, ceramics, red meat and the sale of livestock.
Activity in these sectors have come to a complete halt, revealed Bouabdallah, saying Algeria was more harmed than Spain by the suspension given that it imports its raw material from the European country.
The row erupted in mid-March, when Spain suddenly reversed its decades-long stance of neutrality on the Western Sahara conflict, saying it would back Morocco’s autonomy plan for the disputed region.
Spain's move infuriated Algeria, which has long backed the Polisario Front, Western Sahara's independence movement.
In response, Algiers suspended a friendship treaty signed with Madrid in 2002, and later moved to restrict commercial transactions and to freeze bank operations.
In late July, Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares hoped that relations with Algeria would remain the way they were before the suspension.
He added that the bilateral ties Madrid was seeking must be based on friendship, respect and equality when it comes to sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs.
