Morocco, Tunisia want to increase trade

Morocco and Tunisia on Wednesday voiced their will to increase their trade exchanges to US$ 500 million annually.

Morocco and Tunisia share a determination to give a new impetus to their bilateral trade and increase it to US$ 500 million, Moroccan Premier, Abderrahmane Youssoufi, said at the opening in Tunis of the 10th session of the two country's high joint commission.

Trade between the two countries stood at US$ 151.8 million in 2001 against US$ 122 million in 2000.

The regular meetings of the high joint commission are evidence to the two countries' shared will to score more progress, said Youssoufi.

Morocco and Tunisia are bound by several agreements, including a free-trade zone agreement signed in March 1999. The accord provides for the creation of a free-trade zone before end of 2007.

For Youssoufi, the bilateral free trade accord is one of the gains that positively impacted bilateral relations in several fields. He underlined, in this connection, the key role that the private sector can play in the development of bilateral cooperation.

Youssoufi also lauded the free trade accord signed in 2001 by Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan. The project, he said, is the nucleus of a larger free trade area of Arab states bordering the Mediterranean. "Such an evolution is evidence to a will to establish an Arab common market," he said.

For Tunisian prime minister Muhammad al-Ghanoushe, who co-chairs the commission's meetings with Youssoufi, the future of Moroccan-Tunisian cooperation is promising.

He called for more efforts to increase bilateral trade and lower obstacles hindering the flow of goods.