Morocco Threatens to Scrap Free Trade Deal with Turkey over Economic Concerns

Moulay Hafid Elalamy’s statements can be heard as a final warning addressed to the Turkish side. They are all the more clear as they came on the eve of the visit of the Turkish Minister of Commerce. For the minister, Morocco cannot remain bound by the free trade agreement with Turkey in its current form. "I told them clearly: either we find solutions to revise this agreement, or we tear it up," Elalamy said, relayed by Hespress.

Moulay Hafid Elalamy went even further, stating that Morocco will cancel any trade agreement that causes losses to the national economy. "Morocco will not accept the destruction of any country, whatever its national economy," the minister continued, before adding: "We have no problem with any country, but at the same time, we cannot accept that a state eliminates jobs in our country".

Even before these reactions, Elalamy had already met, during the 34th meeting of the Permanent Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (COMCEC), his Turkish counterpart. To Ruhsar Pekcan, Elalamy had therefore notified this deleterious situation, caused by the worsening of the trade balance deficit in favor of Turkey. This, in turn, causes negative repercussions for Moroccan companies from the free trade agreement.

According to the minister, "Morocco has free trade agreements with 56 states, and it is impossible to condemn them all, because they have given us positive results in certain sectors, including the trade agreement with America, whose exports to Morocco have increased by 16% over a 10-year period, by 13% with Arab countries, by 12% with the United Arab Emirates and by 23% with Turkey," he clarified, stressing that Morocco’s trade deficit with the latter has increased considerably, from 4.4 billion dirhams in 2006 to 16 billion dirhams in 2018.