España y Marruecos efectúan nuevos pasos de mercancías por las aduanas de Ceuta y Melilla

Spain and Morocco yesterday carried out new goods crossings through the customs offices of Ceuta and Melilla in compliance with the timetable set by the two countries during the recent High Level Meeting (HLM), held on 1 and 2 February in Rabat.

"With these new operations, progress is being made on the roadmap towards full, progressive and gradual normalisation, to which the two countries had committed themselves in order to promote trade and tackle the atypical trade that was taking place at these border posts," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated in a press release.

The new trade expeditions "already incorporate solutions to many of the technical difficulties that were detected in the successful pilot test carried out on 27 January", it continued. That test was the first step for Spain and Morocco to have, for the first time, a customs office in Ceuta and for the one in Melilla, closed since 2018, to be reopened.

"Since then, work has been done to adapt the technical and bureaucratic infrastructure to the needs required by a customs crossing of these characteristics to move towards full normalisation in which the two countries are working together according to the schedule that was set during the HLM at the beginning of the month," the Ministry concluded.

During the Rabat Summit, Spain and Morocco pledged to continue working 'so that commercial customs in Ceuta and Melilla continue to open in an orderly and progressive manner until full normalisation of the passage of people and goods is achieved, as established in the Joint Declaration of 7 April', signed by King Mohammed VI and the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, in the framework of the relaunch of bilateral relations after Spain's unexpected decision to recognise Morocco's autonomy plan for Western Sahara.

On 13 February, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, discussed in Madrid with the presidents of Ceuta and Melilla, Juan Jesús Vivas and Eduardo de Castro, respectively, the 'gradual and orderly opening of trade customs' with these two Autonomous Cities in compliance with the road map with Morocco and the conclusions of the last High Level Meeting.