. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/REG209/5 
9 January 2008 
 
 (08-0091) 
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements Original:   English 
  
 
FREE TRADE AGREEMENT BETWEEN TURKEY AND MOROCCO, GOODS 
 
Questions and Replies
 
  
 The following communication, dated 24 December 2007, is being circulated at the request of 
the delegations of Turkey and Morocco.   This document reproduces the questions addressed to the Parties and the responses submitted.  
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Questions from the Delegations of the United States and Australia
 
 1. Box II.2 on page 6 (paragraph 17) notes that both Morocco and Turkey did not 
eliminate tariffs on products falling within HS chapters 1 - 24. 
(a) Why did the parties agree to exclude all agricultural products from tariff 
elimination?  
 The parties have not excluded all agricultura l products including those in Annex I to the 
Agreement from tariff elimination.  Actually they have granted each other the concessions in certain 
agricultural products specified in Protocol II.  Taking into account of: 
  - The role of the agriculture in their economies;   - The development of trade in agricu ltural products between the Parties; 
 
 - The particular sensitivity of the agricultural products; 
  - The rules of their agricultural policies;   - The consequences of the multilateral trade negotiations under the GATT and the 
WTO. 
 
 In accordance with the Agreement, the Parti es will continue discussions on the possibilities of 
granting each other further concessions in basic agricultural, processed agricultural and fishery 
products in the periodic meetings of the Joint Commit tee.  On the other hand the share of agricultural 
products in total bilateral trade has been around 4% in the last five years.   
 
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  (b) What other products were excluded from the agreement?  How were these 
products chosen? 
 According to the Agreement, the products in lis t III in Protocol I, which are not subject to 
concessions granted by Morocco, will also be exam ined in the Joint Committee for liberalization. 
 
 In addition to our reply to the first question, we  would like to state that on the entry into force 
of the agreement 82.2% of Turkey’s tariff lines we re duty free while this figure corresponds to 97.6% 
of imports from Morocco.  At the date of full im plementation of the Agreement in 2015, 86.2% of 
tariff lines of Morocco and 96% of imports from Turkey  will be duty free. Therefore the Parties to the 
Agreement believe that there is substantial c overage fulfilling the requirements stipulated in 
Article XXIV of the GATT 1994. 
 
2. As noted in paragraphs 21 and 24, many of  the lines excluded from tariff elimination 
have MFN duties of 45 percent or greater. 
(a) What is the tariff range and the average  tariff rate for the excluded products 
(both trade weighted and non-trade weighted)?  
The average applied rates on agricultural products are 50.8% (non-trade weighted) and 
24.57% (trade weighted).  
(b) Once the agreement is fully implemented,  what will be the average tariff rates 
for all tariff lines (both trade weighted and non-trade weighted)?  
Since there is no transition period for Turkey the average tariff rates for all tariff lines are 
13.2% (non-trade weighted) and 1.72% (trade weighted). 
3. Note - if applicable for the questions above  please note both the in-quota and out-of 
quota tariff rates. 
 As Turkey has not made any imports through q uota concessions since the entry into force of 
the Agreement, this type of calculation (in qu ota-out quota tariff rates) is not possible.   
 
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