Foreign Trade Council: accompanying measures are crucial for Morocco-US FTA success
Morocco-USA, Economics, 5/6/2005

Although the Morocco-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) offers considerable opportunities to Moroccan textile exporters and an outlet to some agricultural produces, accompanying measures are crucial to benefit the most of the accord, believes Mohamed Benayad, head of the National Council for Foreign Trade (CNCE).

Morocco has to double the pace of the restructuring process and to identify the sectors that are able to compete and be of interest to American consumers, he said recently in Casablanca during the presentation of Mars edition of "Conjoncture" magazine, published by the Centre Marocain de Conjoncture (CMC).

Morocco, Benayad explained, has undoubtedly competitive farm products destined to nearly 350 million Americans, but it should first address the challenge of a market composed of 50 States, especially with the presence of two kinds of legislations, state legislation and federal legislation.

Comparing between the FTA and the accord signed in 1995 with the European Union (EU), Benayad noted that the first one is a global accord comprising all products, while the second one only concerns certain products.

The FTA, signed on June 15, 2004, eliminates tariffs on 95 percent of all bilateral trade between the United States and Morocco. All remaining tariffs are to be eliminated within nine years.

Previous Stories:
  Morocco's FTA promotion in US, 'successful', diplomat   (4/15/2005)
  Morocco highlights investment opportunities for US companies   (2/25/2005)
  American business coalition satisfied at the conclusion of Moroccan-US FTA   (1/28/2005)

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