USA ready to help Morocco alleviate indebtedness

The United States of America is ready to help Morocco reduce its external indebtedness and alleviate its effects, said US ambassador in Morocco, Edward Gabriel.

In a meeting held Tuesday with Moroccan minister in charge of relations with the parliament, Mohamed Bouzoubaa, the US diplomat expressed his country's readiness to endeavor for the consolidation of cooperation with Morocco and voiced the wish that more US investment projects will be carried out in Morocco.

A Moroccan official release said talks covered the need to intensify bilateral relations and cooperation between legislative bodies of the two countries as well as human rights issues in Morocco. The US diplomat stressed that Morocco's efforts to enlarge civil liberties will consolidate the rule of law.

He added that the USA is supporting a regional cooperation with Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia with the aim of help the north African region confront difficulties it is facing.

He further stressed the need to increase the exchange of visits between Moroccan and US officials and the creation of friendship and cooperation committees between the two countries' legislative bodies.

The American initiative to establish cooperation and partnership with the three countries was launched by U.S. Under-secretary of state for economic affairs, Stuart Eizenstat, who toured the region last June.

This initiative aims to "encourage the three Maghreban countries harmonize their custom systems" in such a way to intensify bilateral trade exchanges and hence, publicize their potentials to U.S. investors, according to U.S. under-secretary for the Middle-East and North Africa, Ronald E. Neumann.

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.