Spanish Official Beseeches Algeria: “We Don’t Want Confrontation… We Are Just looking For A Solution”

Algeria firmly responded to the Spanish blackmail, which clearly led to the demise of imports of Spanish ceramics and tiles frozen since the beginning of this year, as the Algerian authorities have as yet refused a visit by a delegation of Spanish officials and industrialists to the country for the same purpose, in the wake of the Spanish side’s attempt to blackmail Algeria concerning Algerian gas supplies to Spain in exchange for the unfreezing of imported Spanish tiles and ceramics.

According to the Spanish newspaper “El Mundo”, the Chairman of the trading Council of Valenciana, Khimou Boyg, has indirectly declared that he could not visit Algeria for the moment so as to thrash out a solution to the halt by Algeria of the exports of ceramics and tiles from his region as already announced.

“I am very concerned about this visit,” he said. “We are talking to the Algerian authorities to reach an agreement to hold a consultative meeting and  to arrange a visit by the Spanish side to Algeria at an appropriate time”.

“We do not want confrontation with the Algerian authorities. We just want a solution to the issue of freezing their imports of Spanish-made ceramics and tiles,” he underlined.

“We have been personally concerned and preoccupied by the region’s active companies in the field of ceramics … Algeria remains an important market for our companies, although the path taken by this country seems difficult,” he added.

The same official has of late  sent a letter to the Ambassador of Algeria in Madrid, Her Excellency Taous Ferroukhi, in which he called on the Algerian government to re-evaluate its position regarding the frozen imports of Spanish tiles and ceramics.

The Spanish official argued in his letter to Ambassador Ferroukhi that the ceramics’ industry in Castillon imports an annual value of 700 million Euros of Algerian gas supplies, pointing out that this high consumption generates significant revenues for this Maghreb country.