U.S. ‘pleased’ with trade ties with Morocco

The United States is “very pleased” with its economic and trade relations with Morocco and hopes to further “strengthen” these ties, said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Economic, Energy and Business Affairs Jose W. Fernandez.

“We are very pleased with our (trade and economic) relationship with Morocco,” Fernandez told Moroccan MAP news agency, adding that his country wishes to “to strengthen our economic ties which are good and get even better.”

A free trade agreement, he said, “makes easier for a company to invest and do business, while the MCC is no less important as it also provides opportunities because it has big components on agriculture fisheries

In 2010, Moroccan exports to the U.S. jumped almost by 50% year-on-year to $685 million, thanks in particular the expansion of export markets and import sources on both sides.

Trade between Morocco and the United States amounted, in turn, to more than $ 2.6 billion in 2010, against 2.1 billion in 2009, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Commerce.
U.S.-Maghreb prestigious meeting.

Fernandez will lead a senior-level delegation from the United States to participate in the 2nd annual U.S.-Maghreb Entrepreneurship Conference due in Marrakech on January 16-18. It will bring together some 450 North African business leaders and entrepreneurs, aspiring youth entrepreneurs, business leaders of the North African diaspora, along with U.S. business leaders and young entrepreneurs.

The conference will include concrete training sessions and partnership-focused workshops on key challenges for advancing entrepreneurship, mainly on improving access to capital in the Maghreb, catalysing youth entrepreneurship in the Maghreb, promoting cross-border business partnerships in key sectors, building partnerships with Maghreb diaspora entrepreneurs in the United States, and addressing youth unemployment through education.

The conference is a regional follow-on to the Presidential Summit on Entrepreneurship held in Washington, D.C., in April 2010 and serves as the annual partnership convening event for the U.S. – North Africa Partnership for Economic Opportunity (NAPEO), part of the global alliance Partners for a New Beginning (PNB).

The APEO is a regional public-private partnership network launched by the U.S. Department of State and co-led with The Aspen Institute with the goal of positively impacting 100,000 youth in the next five years through entrepreneurship, job creation, and increased links between the United States and North Africa (Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia.

The U.S.-Maghreb Conference will be an opportunity to examine with Moroccan officials means to strengthen economic cooperation, mainly through the free trade agreement binding Rabat and Washington and Compact of the U.S. foreign aid agency Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).