Morocco renews backing to Eizenstat initiative
Morocco, Politics, 6/20/2000

Morocco on Monday renewed backing to the Eizenstat initiative, meant to foster cooperation ties between Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and the USA.

Morocco welcomed with satisfaction the Eizenstat Initiative, Moroccan Premier Abderrahmane Youssoufi said on Monday.

Youssoufi told the Moroccan second TV channel 2M that some persisting obstacles hamper the materialization of the initiative.

"The stagnation of relations between Morocco and Algeria is a stumbling bloc preventing the materialization of the initiative, which seeks to set up a free exchange area between the United States and the three Maghreban countries(Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia)," Youssoufi said.

The initiative-- named after former U.S. Under-secretary of state for economic affairs, Stuart Eizenstat-- aims to encourage the three Maghreban nations to harmonize their custom systems in such a way to intensify bilateral trade exchanges and hence, publicize their potentials to U.S. investors.

The initiative revolves around establishing a permanent dialogue at the highest level between the USA and the Maghreban countries, encouraging these countries to lift barriers to ensure a better flow of trade exchanges and materializing inter-Maghreban complementarity leading to better political relations.

The Moroccan premier voiced hope to see the initiative enlarged to include Libya and Mauritania.

Morocco expects the USA to deeply examine with Morocco the files of bilateral exchanges, debt and investments, the Prime Minister said.

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