Morocco’s Border Closure Exposes Economic Impact of Smuggling Trade

With the closure of the Moroccan borders since March 13, the circulation of smuggled goods is over, reports Le Monde, adding that the merchants of the Joutia souk, in the Derb Ghallaf neighborhood of Casablanca, disappointed by the situation, are worried: "Today, we have nothing left to sell" worries Mohamed. "I used to bring my products from Europe and Turkey through informal carriers. Let’s be honest: smuggling is at the heart of the system," admits the owner of a hair salon in Casablanca. Smuggled goods, this is a traffic that weighs 20 billion dirhams per year (about 1.8 billion euros), reports the same source, citing the Moroccan customs.

The smugglers, via the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, in northern Morocco, have ended up creating an ecosystem, flooding the market with mostly adulterated or expired products, at very low prices, disregarding the health of the populations and thus generating an evasion of around 4 to 5 billion dirhams in tax revenue each year for the Kingdom.

Also, the installation of an industrial zone in the region is announced in order to create jobs. The big smugglers are urged to join the legal circuit, by importing the goods, via the port of Tanger Med. "A large part of them have already accepted, we have helped them," assures Nabyl Lakhdar, the general director of the customs and indirect taxes administration.

But we must not be deluded, the total disappearance of the smuggling trade remains utopian. In the buffer zone of Guerguerat, on the border with Mauritania, the phenomenon is already rearing its head, this time with smuggled goods from China, indicates the same source. Work for the customs officers.