Walter Finch
A US government review of the globe’s seven major maritime chokepoints – including the Strait of Gibraltar – will ‘open Pandora’s box’, according to geopolitical analysts.
The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) has announced it will look at a range of factors that may hinder US shipping and trade flowing through the narrow 17km gap between Europe and Africa.
The FMC highlighted several concerns in the Strait of Gibraltar, one of which is the ‘issues surrounding the status of Gibraltar.’
“With these investigations, once they’re initiated you can never be quite sure where they’ll go,” Michael Walsh, a visiting researcher at Granada University’s Faculty of Political Sciences and Sociology, told the Olive Press.
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“Although the FMC is an independent establishment, the findings of the report are likely to be politicised to justify whatever policies the [Trump] administration wishes to pursue in the region.”
The FMC will investigate the ‘causes, nature, and effects, including financial and environmental effects’ of any constraints on US trade and shipping and consider what steps to take to ‘alleviate’ them.
These are likely to include numerous EU regulations American vessels must comply with, as well as ‘geopolitical tensions’ and the ‘laws, regulations or practices of foreign governments.’
On average, around 130,715 vessels transit the Strait each year, of which around 90,000 are merchant ships. It equates to about 358 vessels ever day, or roughly one ship every four minutes.
While the idea of being under a US government microscope might make those happy with the status quo in the Strait uneasy, Walsh suggests it is Spain which has more to worry about.
Gibraltar has long been a friendly port for the US Navy, including regularly hosting the fleet’s nuclear-powered attack submarines.
On the other hand, despite being home to the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet in the Rota naval station, Spain has been in the America’s bad books since before the Trump administration for refusing port-of-call to US-flagged vessels transporting military equipment for Israel.
The FMC had already initiated an investigation after Spain refused entry to the Maersk Denver in early November, which instead was diverted to Tangier in Morocco – another US ally.
Spain, which formally recognised Palestine as a state last year, has reportedly refused port entry to two more vessels reportedly carrying arms to Israel since then.
Coupled with Spanish support for a case against Israel in the International Court of Justice, and it’s easy to see why analysts suspect Trump might jump on the FMC investigation to punish Spain for its foreign policy.
Were the FMC to find that Spain has been creating ‘unfavourable conditions’ to US trade and shipping in the Strait of Gibraltar, the likely policy implications could range from the banning of Spanish ships stopping in US ports to a more severe examination of Spanish trade with the US.
However, with the Trump administration already having proven itself willing to intervene in the affairs of other countries, the report could by the trigger for a radical shift in Spain-US relations.
