Morocco Demands Renegotiation of Turkey Trade Deal Amid Job Losses and Economic Strain

Faced with the call for a boycott of French products launched on October 26 by Turkish President Recep Tiyyip Erdogan, many Moroccan merchants have not hidden their anger. "It’s rather them we should boycott! Since the Turks arrived, they’ve been selling their goods at unbeatable prices and we’ve been put out of business," laments 52-year-old ceramic seller Ahmed Yassir.

The chain of low-cost supermarkets BIM, owned by billionaire Mustafa Latif Topbas, a close associate of Mr. Erdogan, has installed 531 stores from 2009 to date, resulting in the closure of 60 local businesses for each BIM store installed, according to the Ministry of Industry, relayed by Le Monde, noting that Turkey had even managed in 2014 to thwart Morocco’s attempt to impose anti-dumping measures on it before the World Trade Organization (WTO). "We went there with our eyes wide open in an extremely naive way," regrets Karim Tazi, president of the business environment commission at the General Confederation of Moroccan Enterprises (CGEM).

After heated negotiations, Rabat obtained a compromise by signing an amendment to the FTA, validated on October 8 by the Government Council. Among the measures, Turkish textile products will now pay customs duties of 36% and a list of 1,200 products will be excluded from the FTA. "This revision is necessary, but will not be sufficient if the Turkish authorities continue to devalue the lira and subsidize their producers," warns Fatima-Zohra Alaoui, general manager of the Moroccan Association of Textile and Clothing Industries (Amith).

But to become competitive again and attract investors, "we must first recreate the industrial fabric," said Rodolpho Pedro, the Swiss businessman, head of an ecological bleaching and dyeing plant in Casablanca.