Weak Auto Industry Worldwide Causes Drop in Morocco’s Car Exports

People wait with their cars to get on a ferry to Morocco at the southern Spanish port of Algeciras (File photo: Reuters)
People wait with their cars to get on a ferry to Morocco at the southern Spanish port of Algeciras (File photo: Reuters)
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Weak Auto Industry Worldwide Causes Drop in Morocco’s Car Exports

People wait with their cars to get on a ferry to Morocco at the southern Spanish port of Algeciras (File photo: Reuters)
People wait with their cars to get on a ferry to Morocco at the southern Spanish port of Algeciras (File photo: Reuters)

Morocco's car exports fell 6.2 percent in the first five months of 2019 in response to a downturn in the global automotive industry.

This is the first time that Morocco’s auto industry hits reverse after witnessing a growth in the past few years and becoming the country’s top export sector.

Despite the decline, the auto industry remained at the forefront of Morocco's exports with $1.6 billion, representing about 12 percent of the total value of Morocco's exports during the first five months of this year.

Wires and electrical cables industry ranked second in Morocco's value-added exports, with a value of $1.5 billion, up 7.2 percent and accounting for 11.5 percent of the country's total exports. This industry developed greatly in connection with the needs of the automotive industry, including the manufacture of components that enter into cars assembly.

Agricultural fertilizer exports came third with $1.2 billion and a 1.5 percent growth, followed by clothing exports of $1.1 billion.

Phosphoric acid ranked fourth in Morocco's exports over the same period by $685 million, a strong growth of 35.5 percent in association with the country’s increase of phosphoric acid exports to Africa under the new industrial partnerships of the OCP Group (Office Chérifien des Phosphates).

Morocco's exports during the first five months of the year amounted to $13.2 billion, and saw an increase of 3.44 percent compared to the same period last year.

These exports accounted for 29.2 percent of finished products, 22.6 percent of food and beverages, 20.4 percent of semi-finished products, 19.7 percent of finished industrial equipment, 4.7 percent of ores, and 2 percent of plant and animal raw materials. 



Trump Taps Scott Bessent for Treasury

(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
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Trump Taps Scott Bessent for Treasury

(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)

President-elect Donald Trump on Friday said he will nominate prominent investor Scott Bessent as US Treasury secretary, a key cabinet position with vast influence over economic, regulatory and international affairs.

"I am most pleased to nominate Scott Bessent to serve as the 79th Secretary of the Treasury of the United States," Trump said in a statement released on Truth Social. "Scott is widely respected as one of the world's foremost international investors and geopolitical and economic strategists."

Wall Street has been closely watching who Trump will pick, especially given his plans to remake global trade through tariffs and extend and potentially expand the raft of tax cuts enacted during his first term, Reuters reported
The choice came after days of deliberations by Trump as he sorted through a shifting list of candidates. Bessent spent day after day at Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in Florida providing economic advice, sources said, a proximity to the president-elect that may have helped him prevail.
Other names that had been floated included Apollo Global Management Chief Executive Marc Rowan and former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh. Investor John Paulson had also been a leading candidate, but dropped out, while Wall Street veteran Howard Lutnick, another contender, was appointed as head of the Commerce Department.
Bessent, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has advocated for tax reform and deregulation, particularly to spur more bank lending and energy production, as noted in a recent opinion piece he wrote for The Wall Street Journal.
The market's surge after Trump's election victory, he wrote, signaled investor expectations of "higher growth, lower volatility and inflation, and a revitalized economy for all Americans."
"Bessent has been on the side of less aggressive tariffs," said Oxford Economics' Ryan Sweet, adding that picking him makes the steep tariffs Trump proposed on the campaign trail less likely.
Bessent follows other financial luminaries who have taken the job, including former Goldman Sachs executives Robert Rubin, Hank Paulson and Steven Mnuchin, Trump's first Treasury chief. Janet Yellen, the current secretary and first woman in the job, previously chaired the Federal Reserve and White House Council of Economic Advisers.
Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham from South Carolina, Bessent's home state, said in a statement: "President Trump's economic agenda is in good hands with Scott Bessent. I look forward to working closely with Scott and President Trump to lower inflation and create the golden age of prosperity for the American people."