Turkey has agreed to review the free trade deal it has with Morocco, Moulay Hafid Elalamy (pictured), the Moroccan Trade Minister announced on February 10.

Signed in 2004, the deal aimed at giving Moroccan companies duty-free customs access to the Turkish market and in return, Turkish goods will benefit from a gradual reduction in customs duties on the Moroccan market. The agreement covered textiles, steel, and household appliances.

However, Morocco was struggling to achieve the objective due to red tape, and laws hampering the entry of Moroccan products into the Turkish market. In 2018, the African nation recorded a trade deficit of MAD18 billion (about $ 1.8 billion) in its trade relations with Turkey. The textile sector has suffered a heavy loss with the number of job losses growing from 19,000 in 2014 to 44,000 in 2017.

Morocco thus took a series of defensive trade measures, one of which (concerning hot-rolled steel imported from Turkey) was submitted before the World Trade Organization (WTO) in August 2018. Talks for trade deal revisions were engaged on January 15, 2020. 

André Chadrak