Morocco, a key partner in US-Maghreb relations, Eizenstat says
U.S Undersecretary of State for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs Stuart Eizenstat said on Tuesday that Morocco is a key partner in relations between the United States and the Maghreb.
Genuine reforms are underway in Morocco and the country's economic growth shows that the kingdom has started to offer various investment opportunities in several sectors, including tourism, power industry and telecommunications, Eizenstat said at a WorldNet talk with journalists from Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.
The US official engineered last year a U.S-Maghreb partnership initiative aimed to encourage Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia 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 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.
Eizenstat voiced hope that "certain tensions between Morocco and Algeria would be overcome." He noted that economic partnership is likely to help surmount obstacles, including the closure of (Moroccan-Algerian) borders which hampers exchanges.
Eizenstat underlined that Maghreban countries are called to join their economies, because they will not be able to cope individually with the new World economic environment. A united Maghreb market will be attractive to American investors, he said.
Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia are member to the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA) along with Libya and Mauritania.
To a question on the integration of Libya and Mauritania in the Maghreb-USA partnership process, Eizenstat said it was premature at this phase to include Libya as the US, he said, still has "some worries about the Libyan policy." Regarding Mauritania, he said Nouakchott can join the Maghreban-American partnership when its economy gets firmer and when its government and the US private sector voice the interest.
