EU trade commissioner meets Moroccan employers
Morocco-European Union, Economics, 6/29/2001

European Union Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, who started Thursday a three-day visit to Morocco, held immediately after arrival a meeting with the members of the Moroccan employers' association La Confederation Generale des Entreprises du Maroc (CGEM).

The meeting surveyed the opportunities provided by the Morocco-EU association accord and the planned Euro-Mediterranean free trade zone by 2010 and the constraints to be entailed by a total liberalization of exchanges, such as the need to restructure the Moroccan economic fabric.

The restructuring must not be perceived as a punctual operation, but must be operated in the frame of a sustained, permanent process to adapt economy and enterprise to the new globalization data, the CGEM members said calling the EU to foster assistance to this process.

The EU envoy said Morocco and the EU should exploit all opportunities provided by the association accord, that constitutes, he said, a sound medium to help Morocco operate reforms through channeling the financial, technical and human assistance towards the sectors where this assistance is most needed.

He said Morocco has indeed ushered in reforms but strides must still be covered to complete the overall reforms process.

He stated further that enterprises can play a key role in setting priorities and identifying fields where the EU might intervene in a spirit of partnership and shared development and that the two sides can ponder on ways of limiting constraints and making Moroccan products match European standards.

Lamy also voiced the EU's backing to the recent drive to set up a free trade area between Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan, as the EU deems regional integration a key factor to foster the liberalization of exchanges and promote south-south trade.

The trade balance between Morocco and the EU, the Kingdom's major trade partner, shows a deficit to the detriment of Morocco, and a European surplus worth 1.6 billion Euros (more than 16 billion Dirhams).

In 2000, exchanges with the union represented 66 percent of Morocco's overall exports and 60 percent of its imports.

The European commissioner conceded at a press briefing here Thursday evening that economic and trade exchanges between Europe and Morocco are very limited.

Lamy's talks in Morocco with officials, private sector operators and civil society activists, will focus on outstanding trade issues such as the rules of origin.

He will also discuss with Moroccan officials ways of increasing European investments in the Kingdom, that are assessed at some 100 million Euros (about 1.0 billion Dirhams) per year, i.e. 1 percent of the EU's overall foreign investments, and preparations for the World Trade Organization meeting to be held in Doha, Qatar, in November.

Lamy met this Friday in Rabat Moroccan minister of economy, finance, privatization and tourism, Fathallah Oualalou, who renewed Morocco's political will to get closer and closer to the European Union.

Talks covered relations between Morocco and the Union and the two sides' keenness to upgrade these relations.

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