Morocco Imposes 27% Tariff on Turkish Textile Imports to Protect Local Industry

The provisional safeguard measures applied on textile-clothing imports from Turkey became permanent in 2020. Consequently, the provisional additional duty of 22.5%, or 90% of the 25% import duty rate paid by importers, becomes an asset to the treasury, it is indicated. With this new measure, importers will no longer benefit from this surplus that was to be refunded to them.

Henceforth, textile-clothing products of Turkish origin will be subject to an import duty of 27% compared to 0% as provided for in the free trade agreement between Morocco and Turkey.

According to the new Finance Act, import duties are expected to rise to 30% on all products that were taxed at 25% under the common law. The Customs Administration has just updated the list of products affected by the new tariff. Certain items, depending on their destination, benefit from a preferential tariff (between 2.25% and 15.75%), it is specified.

These imports of Turkish textiles already represented a threat to Morocco, in the employment sector. A year earlier, the Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, Rakiya Eddarham, revealed a real disaster following the continuous increase in Turkish textile imports to Morocco in recent years. According to the minister, these imports have resulted in the loss of about 46,000 jobs between 2013 and 2016.