Moroccan Truckers Plan Strike Over Spanish Fuel Restrictions at Border

Contrary to what has been reported, Spain still maintains the "fuel franchise", a decision forcing Moroccan truckers not to exceed 200 liters of diesel in the tank of their vehicle when crossing the Spanish border. Moreover, "the frequency of fines has increased sharply in recent days", said a member of AMTRI (with more than 2,000 companies operating in the TIR sector), thus leading to the meeting organized on November 20, which resulted in a decision to organize a strike as announced by the Secretary General of AMTRI-Maroc, Amer Zghinou. "The date and time, as well as the duration of the planned strike, will be set this Tuesday," he specified to Le360.

During the month of October, the Moroccan Association of Exporters (ASMEX) had asked the Minister of Equipment and Transport, Abdelkader Amara, and his counterpart in Industry and Commerce, Moulay Hafid Elalamy, to intervene with the Spanish authorities, in order to put an end to the "fuel franchise" which, "risks penalizing a large part of our exports to the European Union, which use road transport", warned Hassan Sentissi, president of ASMEX, in his correspondence.

"No action has been taken on this request to date," lamented a senior official at the Ministry of Equipment and Transport, stressing that the definitive solution to this problem necessarily involves a new Morocco-EU agreement dedicated to TIR.