Bouchar
Smuggling or the Other Face of Destroying the National Economy.
A dilemma that requires a comprehensive strategy.
65% of natives buy smuggled goods because of its cheapness in comparison to local merchandise.
While profits range between 200% and 300%, the value of smuggled merchandise in the National market comes to 15 Billion Dirhams.
The phenomenon of smuggling has become widespread in Morocco, to the extent that it is difficult to control it.
This is what necessitates to sound the alarm to confront and uproot this dilemma or at least limit its prevalence in society.
In a journalistic seminar held in Casablanca, the general minister of customs and taxes addressed some of the serious effects of smuggling on the economic and social life of people. He said, “We are confronted with a dilemma that requires a comprehensive strategy”.
Customs administration adopted a new strategy that oscillates between severity in dealing with “professional smuggling practices” and softness in addressing the audience through TV, radio, and national newspaper campaigns. The target is to enlighten the audience of the economic and social dangers of this phenomenon.
In the light of some studies made about smuggling, customs administration drew a very negative image of this phenomenon which penetrates all houses. People establish more intimacy with such type of merchandise; they have no deep opinions about it. They only consume the product.
Some studies displayed that the recent evolution of contraband has contributed to the change of Moroccan view about the activity. Now, they regard it as an ordinary and legal activity. According to the same studies, 65% of people buy smuggled goods because of its inexpensiveness in comparison with local merchandise. Also 50% of people who have been interviewed consider smuggling as a profitable operation.
Customs administration attributes this flourishing of smuggling to two main reasons: First, the development of trade relations between Morocco and foreign markets situated near the North of Morocco. Second, the irresistible profits that professional network gets from this illegal trade (between 200% and 300%).
People choose this kind of trade because of the decline of national commerce, the absence of taxes on smuggled imports and the pervasiveness of joblessness. These factors, in one way or another, have contributed to the widespread proliferation of smuggling.
Among the other negative effects of smuggling on economy is the strong competitive edge that illegal merchandise has over national units which sometimes leads it to bankruptcy. We may add to all these, the bad outcomes that smuggling could have on people’s health.
According to the general administrator of customs and taxes, even if contraband is regarded as a universal phenomenon the strategies adopted to face it may differ from one country to another. In Morocco, for example, customs administration has adopted a new strategy to confront smuggling. It is basically based on cooperation between different elements, including the Labour, Finance and Commerce ministries and individuals as well, especially in the view that we are involved in one way or another with this phenomenon.