Advisor to the UK’s Board of Trade and member of the House of Lords Daniel Hannan called for the recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara on Saturday and for strengthening commercial relations between the two kingdoms.
Hannan, who is also a journalist and writer and President of the Institute of Free Trade, penned a caustic commentary on Britain’s “failure to take advantage of Brexit” published in British daily newspaper, The Telegraph, calling for creating a digital corridor between Tangier and the UK’s ports to reduce paperwork, facilitate investment, and ensure that British trade policy post-BREXIT is fully recognized. He also called for the removal of pre-BREXIT tariffs on non-EU countries, such as Morocco, which “dynamic kingdom” he said has been “hammering at [the UK’s] door” to increase trade.
“The new port outside Tangier is the largest, not only in Africa but in the Mediterranean. A massive car industry has grown up around it, supplying Europe as dependably as Mexico supplies North America.
Over the past 20 years, an aeronautics hub has developed in Casablanca,” he wrote, having recently returned “open-mouthed” as he put it from a tour of these facilities.
“The main cities are connected by high-speed trains that put our railways to shame. Few places are better situated for wind and solar power and their green hydrogen by-product.”
He also noted that Morocco is Britain’s chief supplier of tomatoes, although Morocco’s exports are subject to tariffs and quotas because the country is outside the EU, and the UK has not revised its pre-BREXIT tariff schedule.
The advisor observed that Morocco and Britain have had long-standing ties since the reign of Elizabeth I in the sixteenth century.
Earlier this month, British Member of Parliament and Former Secretary of State for Defense Sir Liam Fox advocated for the UK’s full support of Morocco in recognizing its sovereignty over the Sahara. Fox addressed this position in a letter to Foreign Secretary David Cameron just after Cameron had taken office, focusing on the importance of such recognition for UK-Morocco bilateral relations as well as with respect to Morocco’s growing political and economic importance in the global arena.
Fox acknowledged rising support among British MPs for Morocco’s proposed autonomy plan for resolving the Sahara dispute and expressed dissatisfaction with London’s slow progress on this specific topic.