Turkish Textile Brands Seek Moroccan Suppliers Amid Trade Agreement Changes

At Defacto, textile production has already started in Morocco, said Hassan Avsar, general manager of this company. As for LC Waikiki, it is looking for local suppliers for its stores, informs Médias24. This search for Moroccan suppliers by the Turks is one of the impacts related to the revision of the Morocco-Turkey free trade agreement, in which the two countries approved the reintroduction of 90% customs duties on 1,200 industrial products, in order to contribute to the reduction of the critical deficit of 2 billion dollars in favor of Turkey.

This offers a great opportunity to Moroccan textile operators. They have long suffered from this agreement, since Turkish clothes were cheaper on the domestic market, unlike clothes made in Morocco. This has resulted in the loss of 19,000 jobs in the textile sector in 2014, 24,000 in 2015, 35,000 in 2016 and 44,000 in 2017 over the past few years.