Morocco Amends Trade Deal with Turkey, Excludes 1,200 Products to Balance Trade Deficit

During the 34th session of the COMCEC Permanent Committee, held in 2019 in Istanbul, Minister Moulay Hafid El Alamy had invited his Turkish counterpart to balance the trade balance between the two countries. The reason being that Morocco had recorded that year a trade deficit of 19.5 billion dirhams.

A year later, the two countries have ratified an amendment to the free trade agreement, making it possible to level the bilateral trade exchanges. In the wake of this, Morocco has managed to exclude from the agreement a list of 1,200 products, on which the government has decided to restore customs duties up to 90%.

Several sectors are affected by this new agreement, the validity of which has been set at 5 renewable years, starting from the date of its entry into force. These include textiles, clothing, leather, automotive, wood, electricity and metallurgy.