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Morocco Modernizes Defense Industry Laws, Opening Arms Trade to Domestic Firms
Friday 17 July 2020, by
The draft law relating to defense and security materials and equipment, weapons and ammunition was adopted on Tuesday, July 14, 2020, by the Foreign Affairs, Defense and Borders Committee of the House of Representatives, after having been endorsed on Monday, July 6 in a council of ministers chaired by King Mohammed VI.
Composed of 55 articles, this draft law comes to update the legislation on the arms and ammunition trade, dating from the 1930s. It will allow for better control of the activities of manufacturing, trading, importing-exporting, transporting and transiting these military materials and equipment. To this end, a system of authorization to carry out this activity will be put in place, with a traceability and control mechanism for authorization documents.
Concretely, this draft law, which will allow Morocco to equip itself with a military-industrial and defense mechanism, will also open the military and defense industry market to Moroccan operators and foreign investors in Morocco under certain conditions.
Any offender to this law, the process of which is in progress, faces prison sentences of up to 20 years in prison and fines of around 5 million dirhams.