Turkey and Morocco have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), vowing to establish an advanced partnership to meet the challenges of “competition on markets.”
Morocco’s Competition Council President Driss Guerraoui and his Turkish counterpart Birol Kule signed the memorandum during a video-conference on Tuesday.
The agreement covers cooperation in the field of competition law enforcements, including the importance of combating cross-border anti-competitive practices.
A statement from the Moroccan council said the memorandum of understanding seeks to develop bilateral cooperation between Turkey and Morocco in all areas to strengthen institutional capacity, including in the context of the new post-COVID-19 global system.
The Moroccan and Turkish councils also agreed to exchange data on legislative developments in the field of competition law and economic cooperation.
Commenting on the signing, Guerraoui said the agreement mirrors the readiness of the two councils to establish a “ strong and lasting partnership to meet the challenges in terms of competition on markets, institutional capacity building, and consolidation of the rule of law.”
He said that Morocco’s Competition Council seeks to further strengthen collaboration with its Turkish counterpart in a “global context marked by the emergence of a new generation of practices contrary to free and fair competition.”
Guerraoui said the practices stem from “the development of specific forms of economic concentration and commercial behaviors produced by the challenges surrounding the growing role of large global networks of companies in the digital economy, as well as the impact of the COVID-19 epidimic on the purchasing power of many components of out societies.”
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Kule also commended the signing of the agreement, saying that international cooperation in the field of competition law and policies is becoming a necessity, especially in the context of globalization and the accelerated digitization process.
Turkey and Morocco maintain good trade cooperation despite recent reports of emerging disagreements.
In recent months, the Moroccan government has on various occasions complained about “unfair” competitiveness in terms of the Free Trade Agreement with Turkey (FTA).
The North African country shared concerns regarding its FTA with Turkey, saying that it negatively impacted its economy.
Rabat said that FTA with Ankara resulted in a $ 1.2 billion deficit for the Moroccan economy.
In response, Morocco and Turkey agreed to amend their FTA agreement.
The amendment falls under Bill 54.20, which Morocco and Turkey signed in Rabat last year.
Under the new agreement, Morocco imposes customs duties for a five-year period on some defined categories of Turkish industrial products. The measure’s goal is to “to reach 90% of the value of products from the most-favored-nation.”
