Brussels 26/06/2014 (Agence Europe) - According to reliable sources, Morocco and the EU have decided to introduce a pause for reflection in the negotiations on a “Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement”.
These trade negotiations began in 2013 but were met at the beginning of the year with increasing hostility from various economic stakeholders, who have serious concerns regarding the impact of opening up markets on an economy deemed relatively fragile, due to the strong competition that would arise from European products and services.
Despite the positive conclusions regarding an EU-financed impact study, economic sectors in Morocco were not convinced. They managed to obtain an agreement from the government to organise a more comprehensive consultation with them. It is in this context that the reflection pause has been decided.
At the same time, Minister for External Trade Mohamed Abbou provided a response to parliamentary questions on Tuesday 17 June and explained that the free-trade agreements with third countries are not the cause of the negative results in the country's external trade: “The ills of the trade balance are not directly due to the signing of the free-trade agreements”. He asserted that “43% of our trade deficit is with countries that have not signed free-trade agreements with Morocco”.
Morocco has displayed a tendency to increase the number of free-trade agreements but the EU has questioned the compatibility of its own agreements with some of these other free-trade agreements, particularly the Moroccan free-trade agreement with the US. The minister explained that “Morocco currently enjoys free trade with 55 countries and is continuing to negotiate free-trade agreements with major trade powers, such as Canada and the EU”. The minister believes, however, that this is a “false debate” because “74% of Moroccan imports cannot be substituted. This particularly involves energy products (27%), which are practically non-existent in Morocco, as well as equipment goods (21%), essential for agricultural and industrial development, as well as semi-products (21%), which are practically not produced at all in Morocco”. (FB)