The Delegate of the Government, Sabrina Moh, recalled that there was a demand “from the Melillense citizens a long time ago and that is that our markets and our premises could be nourished by fresh products from the neighboring country”.
The head of the Spanish Government in our city, in an interview with the COPE chain today, addressed the Commercial Customs, which has been open since the beginning of the year and recalled that during this time there were many voices that assured that “a truck would never pass again” through the border crossing of Beni-Enza.
“There are already entrepreneurs, as we have seen, who are making this type of imports,” he said, and explained that, although this opening right now is governed by a series of conditions, these will be extended “progressively, depending on how customs evolves and depending on the demands of the business sector.”
The Government of Spain, he explained, has opened a door for the business sector of the city to make use of it, as a result of the requests that the business sector itself has transferred to the Government Delegation.
“We are here to facilitate coordination, work, raise proposals, raise requests and work together in a coordinated manner,” he said. Something that, he said, also happens in the sister city of Ceuta, where “everyone, including the Autonomous City and the President of Ceuta, has worked to side with the Government Delegation, as the coordinating axis of all this activity.”
The head of the Delegation has shown her desire that this door that was opened at the beginning of the year can be used “and we can expand it so that we have another axis, another scenario of improvement” in the economic field.
“We have always said that we cannot fix our eyes to one place, neither to the north, nor to the south, nor to the east, nor to the west. We have to have a panoramic view to be able to open any scenario that is possible and, above all, so that they also look at us, so that we are attractive and that the economy of Melilla can continue to progress”, he argued.
Of course, Moh has warned that in order to continue progressing “we cannot remain frozen in the past”. “We can’t keep yearning for the past because society has changed and either we get on that change wheel, or, in the end, we get stuck in a past that isn’t going to come.”
And in that process of change and opening new opportunities to the local economy, he added, “they will always find the Government of Spain to collaborate in everything that is beneficial for the city.”
Refrigerated trucks
In the radio interview, the Delegate was asked about the criticisms made by the PP saying that it should not talk about “opening” the Customs but about “reopening”.
Moh has downplayed the terminology and pointed out that the debate should go on the fact that, “for the first time in history, refrigerated fish trucks have passed, complying with the regulations, because let’s not forget that we are talking about a public health issue, and that all health controls pass.”
Therefore, “we can talk about reopening, yes, but we can also talk about opening, because we now have a commercial customs office with different conditions that benefit the Melillense citizens,” he said.
Like exports, it has apostilled, which are carried out with “the conditions that are done in any other point of the territory.” “Commercial customs are open and if we want it to be a Spanish and European commercial customs, we have to comply with the legislation,” he concluded.