{"id":23519,"date":"2016-02-26T00:51:15","date_gmt":"2016-02-26T00:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/morocco-suspends-contact-with-eu-over-farm-trade\/"},"modified":"2016-02-26T00:50:49","modified_gmt":"2016-02-26T00:50:49","slug":"morocco-suspends-contact-with-eu-over-farm-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/morocco-suspends-contact-with-eu-over-farm-trade\/","title":{"rendered":"Morocco suspends contact with EU over farm trade ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Rabat rejects being “buffeted” after EU appealed court invalidated farm trade deal over Western Sahara products.}<\/p>\n

Morocco has suspended contact with European Union institutions over a court ruling invalidating the bloc’s farm trade accord with Rabat and saying it should exclude the disputed territory of Western Sahara.<\/p>\n

The EU lodged an appeal last week against a European Court decision announced on December 10 to void the trade deal with Morocco in response to a suit filed by the separatist Polisario Front movement, which wants independence for the Moroccan-controlled territory.<\/p>\n

The complaint, brought to the court in 2012, involves trade of agricultural products, processed agricultural products and fisheries.<\/p>\n

Issued after the Moroccon government’s weekly cabinet meeting, the statement on Thursday said Morocco rejects the court ruling as against international law and UN Security Council resolutions.<\/p>\n

“Morocco cannot accept to be treated as a subject of a judicial process and to be buffeted between European institutions,” it said.<\/p>\n

“Continuing in that position would deeply threaten the mutual trust and even the continuation of the partnership between the two sides.”<\/p>\n

There was no immediate comment from the EU.<\/p>\n

EU-Moroccan farm trade in 2015 amounted to 43 billion dirham ($4.6 billion).<\/p>\n

The EU and Morocco have struck agreements allowing duty-free quotas for agricultural products such as tomatoes and granting access for European vessels to fish in Moroccan waters in return for financial assistance.<\/p>\n

Free trade agreement<\/p>\n

The two sides also began negotiations in 2013 to form a deeper and broader free trade agreement.<\/p>\n

Morocco has controlled most of Western Sahara since 1975 and claims sovereignty over the sparsely populated stretch of desert to its south, which has offshore fishing and phosphate reserves.<\/p>\n

Morocco’s annexation of Western Sahara prompted an armed struggle by the Polisario Front backed by Morocco’s neighbour Algeria.<\/p>\n

The United Nations brokered a ceasefire in 1991, but talks have since failed to find a lasting settlement in Africa’s longest-running territorial dispute.<\/p>\n

Rights groups such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch accuse Morocco of repressing political freedom in Western Sahara.<\/p>\n

Rabat invests heavily there, hoping to calm social unrest.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Morocco’s King Mohammed launched an 18 billion dirham ($1.85 billion) investment plan in Laayoune, Western Sahara’s biggest city, driven by state-run phosphate company OCP. <\/p>\n

\"File<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Rabat rejects being “buffeted” after EU appealed court invalidated farm trade deal over Western Sahara products.} Morocco has suspended contact with European Union institutions over a court ruling invalidating the bloc’s farm trade accord with Rabat and saying it should exclude the disputed territory of Western Sahara. The EU lodged an appeal last week against […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-23519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23519\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23519"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=23519"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=23519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}