Rabat — A joint report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) has ranked Morocco as the 24th largest source of fake goods worldwide in 2020.
Morocco trails behind major players like China, Hong Kong, Turkiye, and Lebanon in both the number and value of seized counterfeit goods.
Despite this ranking among the top 30 economies, Morocco’s share remains small, accounting for just 2% of global seizures by both volume and value.
The findings of the report reflect a significant gap between Morocco’s position in legitimate global trade versus its footprint in the fake goods market.
The report identifies Morocco as an “unconventional destination” for counterfeit cosmetic products from China, ranking 10th globally between 2020-2021 as both a source and destination for these products.
Morocco also appears among the top countries exporting counterfeit products into the European Union, ranking 24th out of 25 economies the report listed. China dominates this category in both the number of seizures and their total value.
According to the GTRIC-e index, which measures the likelihood of exported goods being counterfeit, Morocco scored between 0.15 and 0.25 in clothing and footwear categories. This places the country in the second global quartile alongside nations like India and Colombia.
A score closer to 1 indicates a higher probability of counterfeits in exports.
The global trade in counterfeit products reached approximately $467 billion in 2021. Clothing, footwear, and leather products were the most commonly counterfeited items, representing about 62% of all counterfeit products seized worldwide.
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