Newspaper article 7, Contraband Modern in the Fes Medina

CONTRABAND: A PHENOMENON BELATEDLY DENOUNCED!
in al-Ikhtiyyar a-Dimoqrati, No. 2, December 3, 1995

1. THE STATE OF AFFAIRS

A massive anti-contraband campaign has recently been launched; it aims to point out the drawbacks of this phenomenon on our economy and the well-being of our citizens. This campaign has been advertised in Moroccan media in their different forms; gendarmerie forces, police and food inspectors have all been girding for the campaign. The question is where are we in reality, and in all what we have said about the real size and daily-invented forms in the world of contraband which has de facto become part and parcel of our daily living, food, clothing, and the necessaries of life.

The first observation about the national campaign against contraband is that it is too belated to the extent that this phenomenon has become an independent economy within the general economic system, sustained by professional networks devoted to creating a state of instability within the channels of common goods, to distributing counterfeited products, and to preventing the importation of investments. The negative impacts of contraband have extended to the job market. This has brought about stagnation in the sector of production and commercial businesses. In addition, this phenomenon has had catastrophic impacts on the well-being of its consumers.

2. WHAT IS CONTRABAND?

In article 282 in the Code of Customs and Indirect Taxes, we find a definition of the kind of contraband that targets Morocco:

- The entrance and leaving of foreign products into and out of the Moroccan territory without declaration, or hidden somewhere so as to escape the customs' license;

- The infiltration of goods and their transit outside the customs offices.

Also included under the category of 'contraband' is illegal ownership of foreign products.

Moreover, this category covers many goods of all kinds: food and electronic products, drugs, fuels, animals, car wheels, and so on. It is worth emphasizing that such products are up for sale in roughly forty markets in most Moroccan cities. Contraband activities are carried out by smugglers of all ages, most of them inhabitants of border zones, who carry the goods to distribution centers, and then to the consumers and middle-men, piecemeal dealers, and travelling salesmen.

3. OF THE CAUSES OF CONTRABAND

The causes of contraband are various, one of which has been the protection of the national industrial fabric from foreign competition for so many years by means of applying high customs taxes regarding local products, or by prolonging the system of banning imports, and requiring importation licenses for a good number of goods. In addition, other reasons include the complicated nature of the customs procedures and the weakness of the Moroccan products alongside the imposition of large profit margins, and the absence of guarantees. All this contributed to the expansion of contraband and its influence.

There is another key factor behind the aggravation of this crisis: the limited nature of the competing capacity of our national products. We are not saying that this is consequent on their high prices in comparison with contraband products, because the reason for this is contraband itself! We are rather referring to factors related to the diversity and quality of the foreign product (at least some of its brands).

All this calls for another campaign, in parallel with the one against contraband, aimed at a reconsideration of the national product in order to upgrade its quality.

4. OF THE MEANS TO COMBAT CONTRABAND

The Moroccan government has taken a number of steps with the aim of combating the phenomenon of contraband. The dominant dimension of these governmental steps is the economic motif; a number of laws have been passed and measures taken to upgrade the rising national industries, to enhance exportations to support investments and to take every step that would contribute to attracting the international flows of hard currency. In this regard, the parliament ratified unanimously the decision to effect changes on Chapter 181 of the Customs Code.

Other measures taken include attempts made to encourage some smugglers to endorse legitimate and transparent trade, by upgrading the checkpoints for surveying foreign trade, and by easing the procedures of banning and restricting so as to achieve openness vis-à-vis free global trade exchanges. In the same vein, the month of September witnessed a spectacular reduction of customs taxes to five per cent for 500 products manufactured outside Morocco.

The Committee for Social Welfare and Development was set up in the northern provinces of the country. A law that allows the creation of free exportation zones was ratified; it aims to create spaces for industrial activities and all the services related to them. In 1995, the Law of Finance was ratified; it resulted in the establishment of the Free Industrial Repository, which is mainly concerned with limiting the collection of taxes and customs duties.

In this regard, aggressive steps were taken by issuing a collective statement by the Ministries of Finance and Interior and Trade in order to intensify efforts with all the responsible bodies through a continuous operation to combat contraband. In this statement, the distinction is made between subsistence and professional contraband, in order to severely fight the latter in all border checkpoints and main roads, and in cities and towns alike. In the same vein, it was decided to act against subsistence contraband with less severity till the development programmes concerning the northern regions have all been put into practice.

One of the first fruits of the operation to fight contraband is the recording of 4,980 checked cases during this stage as compared to 3,450 in a similar period last year. The value of seized products has been estimated at DH 140 million compared to DH 98 million in the year before. Significantly, the figure of executed penalties has reached DH 40.8 million.

Other procedures have been taken with the aim to reform the administration and to adopt decentralization tailored to the diverse characteristics of different regions and the multiplicity of their interests. This also included collecting data in order to create an intranational information network and to sensitize the concerned groups about the drawbacks of contraband on society and the individual.

5. OF PREDICTING THE FUTURE

Turning back to our initial question, we can say that the media campaign against contraband, and for which the customs and indirect taxes have allotted a big budget, has not achieved the awaited results. This is due to the size of the problem and its dimensions, some of which we have treated above. It is a campaign that does not deal with the reality of contraband as a daily concern of our national economy; this phenomenon has characterized this economy for 30 years.

Furthermore, it is a campaign which does not concern itself with all kinds of contraband products, but rather limits itself to food and electronic products. It has not engaged local producers in the campaign; they are the ones who would be responsible for improving the quality of national products. This campaign has also ignored the Moroccan citizen and his/her real needs or his/her everyday problems in order to of find out about his/her painful existence between the local and the contraband product, between the lures of the second and the shackles of the first.

What this campaign generally reveals is the problematic nature of the official media in our country; the problem lies in the absence of complexity in the debate over national concerns, one the most serious of which is contraband.