Rabat – 14 nations from across the world officially established the Future of Investment and Trade Partnership (FIT Partnership) during a virtual ministerial meeting on Tuesday, September 16.
The initiative brings together small and medium-sized economies that depend heavily on trade and aim to defend the global system based on rules.
Morocco is among the founding members. The states forming FIT include Brunei, Chile, Costa Rica, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Morocco, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Rwanda, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, and Uruguay.
FIT emerged after roughly twelve months of consultations among trade ministers, including a meeting in Switzerland in May. It aims to create a flexible platform where members can work together on shared challenges rather than a group governed by binding treaties.
The group plans to focus its cooperation on strengthening supply chain resilience, facilitating investment, reducing non-tariff barriers (those trade obstacles that are not tariffs, like regulatory or technical standards), and integrating trade-related emerging technologies
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For Morocco, participating in FIT offers a strategic chance to highlight its role as a regional trade hub. The country has recently undertaken reforms, such as revising its investment code, to become more attractive to foreign investors.
The initiative gives Morocco a venue to promote fair trade rules suited to economies in similar situations, to enhance its global voice, and to link public and private sectors in designing trade policies.
It is also intended to complement Morocco’s existing bilateral and regional trade agreements, such as those with the European Union, its African neighbours, and trade ties with the United States, by adding a multilateral element focused on small and medium economies.
The first formal follow-up for FIT is scheduled for November, with a ministerial meeting in Singapore, where participating countries are expected to present concrete projects building on FIT’s themes.
Non-binding cooperation, joint initiatives across countries, and private-sector involvement are part of the planned structure.
The FIT Partnership is not a binding trade deal but a voluntary coalition. Instead, it offers a forum for collaboration, learning, and coordinated action on emerging trade issues.
This partnership reflects global concern over trade fragmentation and the challenges small open economies face in shifting geopolitical and economic landscapes.
For Morocco, FIT is more than symbolic as it may help the country project greater influence in international trade negotiations, attract more foreign direct investment, and modernize its trade-related infrastructure, especially in technology and customs processes.
