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Morocco to Review Trade Relations with Turkey

A woman walks along a street in Fez, Morocco (File photo: Reuters)
A woman walks along a street in Fez, Morocco (File photo: Reuters)
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Morocco to Review Trade Relations with Turkey

A woman walks along a street in Fez, Morocco (File photo: Reuters)
A woman walks along a street in Fez, Morocco (File photo: Reuters)

Morocco’s government intends to review its free trade agreement with Turkey, saying the Moroccan economy has lost $2 billion a year since the signing of the deal in 2004.

Turkish Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan will visit Morocco Wednesday alongside a Turkish business delegation to explore new business cooperation opportunities and meet a number of Moroccan ministers and officials.

Moroccan Minister of Industry, Trade and Green, and Digital Economy Moulay Hafid El-Alamy asserted that his country cannot keep the agreement with Turkey in its current form.

He threatened to terminate the agreement if no solutions were found.

Alamy was speaking at a meeting in the House of Representatives during a session on the “outcomes of the free trade agreements.”

The Moroccan minister revealed that he visited Turkey earlier to discuss the deal, and met his Turkish counterpart.

Alami also said Morocco has no problem with any country while stressing the priority to defend the national economy and the jobs that “we made a great effort to provide.”

The minister revealed that Morocco will review 56 free trade agreements, mainly the one signed with Turkey.

He pointed out that exports to the US increased by about 16 percent, to Arab countries by 13 percent, while they rose 12 percent with the UAE, and 23 percent with Turkey.

The Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) said the country is fighting companies that want to oversupply the Moroccan market with products.

The opposition party indicated that Turkish textile products entering Morocco created a huge problem for the industry and affected jobs.

Turkish exports to Morocco grew 16 percent during 2018 to reach $2.3 billion, while the volume of trade exchange between the two countries amounted to $3 billion last year.

Chairman of the Turkish-Moroccan Business Council Mehmet Buyukeksi told Anadolu Agency that Turkish businessmen have invested around $1 billion in Morocco, providing jobs for nearly 8,000 Moroccans.

Trade exchanges between Morocco and Turkey, since the free trade agreement went into effect in 2006, have reached $2.8 billion in 2018, compared to only $684 million in 2016.

Morocco's trade deficit with Turkey increased dramatically, moving from $456 million in 2006 to $1.66 billion in 2018, prompting the calls for reviewing the free trade agreement.

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Trump Exempts Mexico Goods from Tariffs for a Month, but Doesn’t Mention Canada

Construction workers are seen on the site of a new development in Long Beach, California, March 5, 2025. (AFP)
Construction workers are seen on the site of a new development in Long Beach, California, March 5, 2025. (AFP)
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Trump Exempts Mexico Goods from Tariffs for a Month, but Doesn’t Mention Canada

Construction workers are seen on the site of a new development in Long Beach, California, March 5, 2025. (AFP)
Construction workers are seen on the site of a new development in Long Beach, California, March 5, 2025. (AFP)

US President Donald Trump on Thursday said Mexico won't be required to pay tariffs on any goods that fall under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade until April 2, but made no mention of a reprieve for Canada despite his Commerce secretary saying a comparable exemption was likely.

"After speaking with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, I have agreed that Mexico will not be required to pay Tariffs on anything that falls under the USMCA Agreement," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "This Agreement is until April 2nd."

Earlier on Thursday, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the one-month reprieve on hefty tariffs on goods imported from Mexico and Canada that has been granted to automotive products is likely to be extended to all products that comply with the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade.

Lutnick told CNBC he expected Trump to announce that extension on Thursday, a day after exempting automotive goods from the 25% tariffs he slapped on imports from Canada and Mexico earlier in the week.

Trump "is going to decide this today," Lutnick said, adding "it's likely that it will cover all USMCA-compliant goods and services."

"So if you think about it this way, if you lived under Donald Trump's US-Mexico-Canada agreement, you will get a reprieve from these tariffs now. If you chose to go outside of that, you did so at your own risk, and today is when that reckoning comes," he said.

Nonetheless, Trump's social media post made no mention of a reprieve for Canada, the other party to the USMCA deal that Trump negotiated during his first term as president.

Lutnick said his "off the cuff" estimate was that more than 50% of the goods imported from the two US neighbors - also its largest two trading partners - were compliant with the USMCA deal that Trump negotiated during his first term as president.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called Lutnick's comments "promising" in remarks to reporters in Canada.

"That aligns with some of the conversations that we have been having with administration officials, but I'm going to wait for an official agreement to talk about Canadian response and look at the details of it," Trudeau said. "But it is a promising sign. But I will highlight that it means that the tariffs remain in place, and therefore our response will remain in place."

Lutnick emphasized that the reprieve would only last until April 2, when he said the administration plans to move ahead with reciprocal tariffs under which the US will impose levies that match those imposed by trading partners.

In the meantime, he said, the current hiatus is about getting fentanyl deaths down, which is the initial justification Trump used for the tariffs on Mexico and Canada and levies on Chinese goods that have now risen to 20%.

"On April 2, we're going to move with the reciprocal tariffs, and hopefully Mexico and Canada will have done a good enough job on fentanyl that this part of the conversation will be off the table, and we'll move just to the reciprocal tariff conversation," Lutnick said. "But if they haven't, this will stay on."

Indeed, Trudeau is expecting the US and Canada to remain in a trade war.

"I can confirm that we will continue to be in a trade war that was launched by the United States for the foreseeable future," he told reporters in Ottawa.