Il ministero dell’Agricoltura marocchino ha minacciato di ridurre la cooperazione economica con l’Unione europea e di guardare allo sviluppo di legami con la Russia e con altri Paesi, se verrà violato l’accordo sui prodotti agricoli e sulla liberalizzazione del commercio in agricoltura e pesca tra Ue e Marocco. “Impedire le esportazioni alimentari marocchine in Ue minacceranno la cooperazione costruita nel corso di molti anni e non lasceranno al Marocco altra scelta che cambiare posizione a favore di partenariato con la Russia, la Cina, l’India, il Giappone, i Paesi della regione del Golfo e i nostri vicini africani” ha detto il ministro secondo la News Agency del Marocco.

The Moroccan Ministry of Agriculture has threatened to curtail economic cooperation with the European Union and look toward developing ties with Russia and other countries if the agreement on agricultural goods, liberalizing trade in agricultural and fisheries products between the bloc and Morocco is violated. “Such hurdles [preventing Moroccan food exports to EU] threaten cooperation built over many years, and do not leave Morocco any choice other than to change a stance in favor of partnership with Russia, China, India, Japan, countries of the Gulf region and our African neighbors,” the Ministry is quoted as saying by the Morocco’s News Agency. Last month, the European Court of Justice adopted a decision to cancel the trade agreement with Morocco after the separatist Polisario Front movement, seeking independence for Western Sahara, filed a lawsuit to call off the EU-Morocco deal. Under the court decision, Western Sahara should be excluded from the trade deal and products from its territory cannot be exported to the bloc under a bilateral trade agreement. At the same time, Morocco has been seeking closer cooperation with Russia. In March last year, Moroccan King Mohammed VI visited Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.