Polisario appeals to British High Court over UK-Morocco trade deal

A pro-Polisario group has lodged an official complaint before the British High Court on Wednesday, demanding a review of the post-Brexit trade agreement concluded between Morocco and the United Kingdom in 2019.

Western Sahara Campaign UK (WSCUK) argues that the trade agreement was concluded without obtaining the consent of people from the Western Sahara territory.

The British High Court set up this special judicial hearing to assess the UK-Morocco trade agreement, which the plaintiffs describe as “an exploitation of the disputed territory’s resources.”

WSCUK claims that the Sahara is a “non-self-governing territory over which Morocco claims sovereignty,” meaning that the lawsuit against the UK Department for International Trade and the Treasury claims that the body is in breach of its obligations under international law.

The law firm representing the pro-Polisario organization explained that “Morocco cannot enter into a trade agreement on behalf of Western Sahara because it has no right to do so.”

The legal challenge at the heart of the three-day hearing relates to the statutory instruments that allow Morocco to benefit from preferential tariffs, which extend the preferential rate of UK import duty to goods from the Kingdom, including the Western Sahara.

This new legal action is an attempt to mirror a previous legal dispute brought to the European Union Court of Justice (CJEU), to review the lawfulness of trade agreements with Morocco for goods that are sourced from the Kingdom, along with its Western Sahara.

Pertaining to the Morocco-EU free trade agreements, separatists took legal actions and claimed that the bilateral deals for both agricultural trade and fishing rights were illegal, citing the “ambiguous status of the territories.”

In its judgment, the court affirmed that international law does not, in theory, prevent “the Union and Morocco from concluding an agreement applicable to Western Sahara.”

However, the CJEU insists that this must be done with “the consent of the people of Western Sahara, as a third party to the disputed agreements.”

Following consultations, the EU and Morocco announced in a joint statement that they were “committed to continuing their strategic partnership,” and furthering trade between both entities, within the framework of the court’s decision, as the agreements were canceled two months after the court’s judgment.
The case with the EU differs from the recent pro-polisario group’s inquiry, as it will focus specifically on tariff and customs regulations of the bilateral agreement, to decide whether it meets and respects all the standards of international law.

Since then, the Union-Morocco trade agreements await progression on the inclusion of Morocco’s southern territories, while the North African country’s bilateral trade with the union’s countries continues to thrive.

The post-Brexit UK-Morocco trade agreement saw the two partners able to include Moroccan southern territories into their trade, which ignited the recent lawsuit.

The EU has remained Morocco’s largest trading partner, and Morocco is the EU’s largest partner in the region.

According to the most recent data, trade amounted to more than 43 billion euros in 2021, the highest level ever recorded, having increased by almost 10% compared to pre-pandemic levels.