The commercial blockade between Algeria and Spain threatens the supply of gas to Europe

The commercial blockade between Algeria and Spain announced this week threatens a business that in 2021 moved just over 7,000 million euros in products on both sides of the border.

The measure, which was taken by Algiers in response to the support of the Government of Pedro Sánchez for the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara, has raised concern, not only in Spain, but throughout the European Union, which considers that it could be a violation of the association agreement it has with the African country.

According to data from the Secretary of State for Trade, in 2021 Spain imported merchandise from Algeria valued at 4,768 million euros, while exports to the African country were only 1,887 million.

However, Spain's biggest concern is that Algeria's gas exports will be affected, given that 91% of imports are energy products, especially hydrocarbons and derivatives, according to media reports.

97% of the natural gas that Spain imports comes from the Republic of Algeria, which makes it its third customer with 2,082 million euros destined mainly to pay the gas bill, almost equivalent to the value of all sales from Spain to the country African.

In this sense, the Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, ruled out this Thursday that Algiers' decision affects gas and recalled that the energy companies that have commercial relations with Algeria have told him that "there is no difficulty" in maintaining the flow of gas between the two countries.

According to the digital newspaper Público, the agricultural markets could be more affected, since Algeria has a significant weight in national imports and is one of the five international markets to which Spain goes to buy meat, fish, oils or cereals.

Algeria, for its part, is one of the main buyers of livestock and agricultural products in Spain, with transactions worth 435 million euros.

For its part, Algiers assured that the gas supply to Spain will not be affected. “In addition, and with regard to gas deliveries to Spain, Algeria has already made it known through the most authoritative voice, that of the President of the Republic, that it will continue to comply with all the commitments made in this context. commercial companies interested parties to assume all their contractual commitments," the Algerian mission to the EU wrote in a press release.