Major Event

Government Adopts Agreement to Extend to Southern Provinces Tariff Preferences Under Association Agreement
3/1/2019

The Council of Government, which convened on Thursday in Rabat, adopted a draft law to approve an agreement meant to apply to products from the southern provinces of the Kingdom the same tariff preferences as those covered by the Morocco-European Union Association Agreement. Presented by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, this draft law No. 10.19 approves the agreement, in the form of an exchange of letters between the Kingdom of Morocco and the European Union (EU), on the amendment of draft agreements No. 1 and 4 of the Euro-Mediterranean Agreement, concluded on Oct. 25, 2018 in Brussels, establishing an association between the European Communities and their Member States, on the one hand, and the Kingdom of Morocco on the other hand, said Minister delegate for relations with parliament and civil society, government spokesperson Mustapha El Khalfi. The first draft agreement concerns the regime applied to products imported to the EU from Morocco, while the second concerns the definition of the concept of "sourced products" and the means for administrative cooperation, the minister said in a statement at a press briefing after the weekly cabinet meeting. The amendment of these two draft agreements aims to make products from the southern provinces of the Kingdom benefit from the same tariff preferences, under the Association Agreement signed by Morocco and the EU on Feb. 26, 1996 in Brussels, El Khalfi said. This agreement is based on the exceptional long-standing partnership between Morocco and the EU, which has been crowned by the granting of the advanced status to the Kingdom, he said. In this regard, the two parties agreed to set up a joint commission that will meet yearly to evaluate the effects of this agreement, he concluded.