WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/REG209/M/1 
10 January 2008 
 
 (08-0107) 
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements   
  
CONSIDERATION OF THE FREE TRADE AGREEMENT BETWEEN TURKEY AND 
MOROCCO, GOODS 
Note on the Meeting of 29 November 2007
 
Chairman:  Mr J. Metcalfe (United Kingdom) 
 
1. The meeting was convened in document WTO/ AIR/3097 and Revision 1 dated 18 October 
2007 and 15 November 2007, respectively. 
2. Under Agenda Item B.II of its 48th Session, the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements 
(CRTA or the Committee) took up the considerati on of the Free Trade Agreement between Turkey 
and Morocco, goods.   
3. The Chairman  noted that the Agreement had entere d into force on 1 January 2006 and had 
been notified to the WTO by the Parties on 10 February 2006 under Artic le XXIV:7(a) of the 
GATT 1994 and the Understanding on the Interpre tation of Article XXIV of GATT 1994 as an 
Agreement establishing a free-trade area (documen t WT/REG209/N/1).  The text of the Agreement 
had been circulated to Members as documen t WT/REG209/1 dated 14 March 2006, and was also 
available, together with its Annexes,  on the Parties' official websites. 
4. The Factual Presentation on the goods aspects (document WT/REG209/3 dated 27 September 
2007) had been prepared by the Secretariat on its  own responsibility in full consultation with the 
Parties, in accordance with paragraph 7(b) of the Transparency Mechanism for Regional Trade 
Agreements (document WT/L/671).  In addition, written questions and replies had been recently 
distributed in documents WT/REG209/4 date d 26 November 2007 and WT/REG209/5 dated 
9 January 2008.  He proposed to organize consider ation of the Agreement by first asking the Parties 
and then other Members to give any general co mments.  The Committee would then turn to the 
specifics of the Agreement, using the Factual Presentation, document WT/REG209/3, to guide the 
debate.  He proposed to go through the Factual Presentation by section, then through the questions 
and replies document. 
5. The representative of Turkey  reaffirmed Turkey's strongest support for a rules-based 
multilateral trading system under the WTO, and for strengthened WTO rules, disciplines and 
mechanisms on RTAs.  Turkey had acceded to th e GATT in 1951 and was a founding member of the 
WTO.  Within this framework, it participated in  regional and internationa l agreements for trade 
liberalization.  The Customs Union between Turkey and the EU had entered into force on 1 January 
1996.  Article 16 of Decision 1/95 of the Customs Union Association Council stated that with a view to harmonizing its commercial policy with that of the Community, Turkey should align itself 
progressively with the preferential customs regime  of the Community.  This alignment concerned 
both the autonomous regimes and pref erential agreements with third c ountries.  In addition, Turkey 
was a member of the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Partnership Process, also known as the Barcelona 
Process, to establish political and economic partne rships among the countries in the region.  The 
Pan-Euro-Med Partnership process had been acc epted by the Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial 
Conference in November 1995.  It envisaged the fo rmation of a Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area WT/REG209/M/1 
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by 2010 between Turkey, EU, EFTA, Morocco, Tunisi a, Algeria, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, 
Israel, and Palestine.  To date Turkey had concluded seven FTAs with Euro-Med countries and 
negotiations were continuing on other FTAs.  In th is context, the FTA between Turkey and Morocco 
had been signed on 7 April 2004 and, following comp letion of internal and diplomatic procedures by 
the Parties, had entered into force on 1 January 2006.   It aimed at the gradua l establishment of a free-
trade area between the Parties by 2015, in conformity with Article XXIV of GATT 1994.   
6. With regard to industrial goods, Turkey ha d abolished customs duties and other charges 
having equivalent effect, as well as quantitative restrictions, on impor ts from, and exports to, Morocco 
upon entry into force of the Agreement.  Moro cco had abolished customs duties and equivalent 
charges on industrial products not contained in Protoc ol I upon the entry into force of the Agreement.  
Customs duties and charges having equivalent e ffect on a group of sensitive industrial products 
(in Lists I and II of Protocol I) were to be abo lished gradually over ten years by Morocco starting on 
1 January 2006.  For products in List I of Prot ocol I, Morocco had reduced customs duties and 
charges having equivalent effect by 10 per cent on  1 January 2006 and 1 January 2007 and would 
make eight successive reductions of 10 per cent up to  2015.  For products in List II, import duties and 
charges having equivalent effect had been reduced by 3 per cent upon the entry into force of the FTA, 
and the remaining duties would be phased out as fo llows:  a 3 per cent reduction in the next three 
years, followed by a 15 per cent reduction over fi ve years, with the remaining 13 per cent being 
abolished at the beginning of the tenth year.   
7. List III of Protocol I contained products, incl uding used products, not subject to concessions 
granted by Morocco and were to be examined in th e Joint Committee.  For all industrial products not 
contained in Protocol I, Morocco had removed duti es and charges having equivalent effect with the 
entry into force of the Agreement.  Protocol II covered preferential trade for agricultural products.  
The scope of agricultural concessions was limited.  Nevertheless, taking into account the development 
of bilateral agricultural trade and the results of  multilateral trade negotiations, the Parties would 
examine in the Joint Committee the possibility of gr anting each other further agricultural concessions.   
8. Protocol III covered rules of origin and  was fully compatible with the Pan Euro-Med model 
origin protocol.  There were additional provisions in the origin protocols with Morocco, Tunisia and 
Algeria allowing full cumulation among these countries which was excluded from Pan-Euro-Med trade.  For the proper functioning of the free trade area, the Agreement contained provisions, 
inter alia , on rules of origin, cooperation between customs administrations, public aid, state 
monopolies, internal taxation, competition, public procurement, and protection of intellectual, 
industrial and commercial property rights.  Regulat ory provisions, including standards, subsidies, 
safeguard, anti-dumping and count ervailing measures, were in c onformity with the relevant 
WTO Agreements.   
9. The Parties believed that the Agreement ha d not only contributed to diversifying and 
expanding bilateral trade, but also served their i ndustrial and economic devel opment.  They believed 
that increased competition between economic actors had increased welfare and the Agreement had put 
them on the path to developing a flourishing trade re lationship.  Thus, following entry into force of 
the Agreement in 2006, bilateral trade had incr eased by 41 per cent from the previous year and 
reached US$725 million.  The Agreement was an impor tant milestone within the framework of the 
Barcelona Process for the creation of a prosperous ar ea in the Mediterranean basin.  As the first FTA 
signed with a Southern Mediterranean country, the FTA with Morocco also encouraged other 
countries of the region to conclude FTAs with Turkey and among themselves. 
10. The representative of Morocco
 said his country had a favourable investment climate with a 
new strategy to create increased opportunities for inv estor partnerships in various sectors such as the 
Tangier-Med port, the Azur plan, the construction of motorways, social housing, and redevelopment 
of the Bouregreg and the Casablanca coastline.  Mo rocco had been engaged in a liberalization and 
economic reform process over the last 20 years.  Its commitment and adhesion to WTO agreements  WT/REG209/M/1 
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  and other multilateral and plurilate ral agreements showed its commitments to the multilateral trade 
process, its respect for international rules and ins titutions and its integration into the global economy. 
11. Morocco had also concluded bilateral investme nt and double taxation treaties and free trade 
agreements and economic partners hips with several countries within and outside the region.  
Examples included the Agadir agreement signed by four Arab countries, an Economic Association 
agreement with the EU, a free trade agreement with the United States, in addition to participation in 
the Euro-Mediterranean partnership which aimed to establish a wider market in the countries of the 
Mediterranean basin. 
12. The FTA between Turkey and Morocco formed part of this Euro-Mediterranean process in 
which the two Parties actively participated.  Th eir institutional framework for trade policy was 
relatively similar as had been shown from their comm itment to the WTO.  The two policies were rules 
based while maintaining specificities for regional and development policies.  The Agreement had 
entered into force in 2006 and aimed to be a mechanis m of additional growth and an important step in 
increasing bilateral trade.  This was the starting point for reinforced cooperation in trade between 
companies from the two countries, thereby encouraging direct investment in the Parties.  As proof of 
this, bilateral trade did not exceed US$246 million in  2003.  While this had been a low level and 
concentrated in products such as textiles, elect rical equipment, and mining products, it incited the 
government and the private sector to increase effort s to boost bilateral trade especially since both 
countries possessed strengths that had not been effectiv ely exploited.  As a result, bilateral trade had 
reached US$718 million in 2006, an increase of over 40 per cent.  More importantly, during the first 
eight months of 2007, according to preliminary es timates, bilateral trade had reached US$607 million, 
an increase of 28 per cent from the corresponding period in 2006.  In addition, Turkish investment in 
Morocco in 2006 exceeded US$1 billion. 
13. Turkey's exports to Morocco included steel products, parts, industrial machinery, white goods 
and textiles, while Morocco's exports included phos phates and their derivatives, paper pulp, iron ore 
and leather.  Turkish companies had a significant presence in Morocco particul arly in equipment and 
public works.  The Parties had enormous economic  and trade potential particularly because Morocco 
was a production, investment and export platform fo r Europe, the Maghreb and Arab countries, Africa 
and America, while Turkey was a gateway for Europe  and the far East.  Turkey and Morocco would, 
under the Agreement, benefit from agreements si gned with other countries to accede to different 
markets.  The Agreement was drawn up in complia nce with the Parties' bilateral, regional and 
multilateral commitments. 
14. The Chairman  proposed to discuss the specifics of the Agreement, in line with the Factual 
Presentation.   
15. On Section II.B, the representative of the United States  drew Members' attention to Chart II.1 
on page 7 which showed that both Parties had excl uded a significant number of tariff lines from duty 
elimination.  The United States was concerned about such exclusions given the mandate of 
Article XXIV to eliminate duties on substantially all tr ade.  In addition, on page 6, Box II showed that 
neither Party had eliminated tariffs on products  in HS Chapters 1-24 and she asked why all 
agricultural products were excluded, what other prod ucts were excluded and how they were chosen.  
She also asked for the tariff range and the average tariff for the excluded prod ucts on a trade-weighted 
and non-trade-weighted basis as well as the expect ed overall average tariff (trade and non-trade 
weighted) when the Agreement was implemented fu lly, including in and out of quota rates, where 
relevant. 
16. The representative of Australia  supported the United States' statement about the lack of tariff 
elimination as required under Article XXIV.  His de legation was also concerned about the exclusion 
of a major sector such as agriculture and asked  how this met obligati ons under Article XXIV. WT/REG209/M/1 
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17. The representative of Morocco
 noted that it was Morocco that had asked for the exclusion of 
agricultural products primarily due to their sensitiv ity and also due to international commitments. 
18. The representative of Turkey  added that he had already noted that agricultural concessions 
under the Agreement were limited due to the sensitivity of agriculture in both Parties.  There was, 
however, provision in the Agreement for the Parti es to extend agricultural concessions to other 
agricultural products, which was to be  negotiated in the Joint Committee. 
19. The Chairman  thanked the parties for initial remark s and asked whether the United States 
could provide its questions in writing. 
20. The representative of the United States  agreed to give her questions in writing.  She also 
expressed concern that international commitments may be causing a Member to exclude all 
agricultural products from the Agreement and asked for further details on these commitments.  The 
United States was also concerned that Members would agree a priori  to exclude all agricultural 
products from tariff elimination while asserting that th e Agreement was consistent with Article XXIV. 
21. The representative of Turkey  noted that all agricultural products in Annex I had not been 
excluded from tariff elimination.  Concessions on certai n agricultural products in Protocol II had been 
provided.  Based on the role played by agriculture  in their economies, the development of bilateral 
agricultural trade and the sensitiv ities associated with agriculture, their agricultural policies and 
consequences of multilateral trade negotiations, the Parties would continue to discuss the possibility 
of granting additional concessions in primary an d processed agricultural products and fisheries 
through periodic meetings of the Joint Committee.  He noted that the share of bilateral agricultural 
trade had been around 4 per cent of total trade in the last five years.  Upon entry into force of the 
Agreement 82.2 per cent of Turkey's tariff lines had become duty free, corresponding to 97.6 per cent 
of imports from Morocco.  Upon full implementa tion in 2015 86.2 per cent of Morocco's tariff lines 
and 96 per cent of imports from Turkey would be dut y free.  The Parties therefore believed there was 
substantial coverage, fulfill ing requirements in Article XXIV.   The products in List III of Protocol I, 
which were not subject to tariff concessions by Mo rocco, would also be examined in the Joint  
Committee.  On the second question, he said that th e average agricultural tariff was 50.8 per cent and 
as there was no transition period for Turkey, the overall average tariff was 13.2 per cent.  He could not provide trade weighted data at this stage a nd he requested the question in writing so that the 
Parties could respond in writing. 
22. The representative of Morocco
 added that given the sensitivity of agricultural products, both 
Parties had agreed to make limited concessions including on seeds, oilseeds, cumin seeds and cheese 
products.  Other products had not been excluded.  With regard to the second question, there had not 
been enough time to provide detailed responses but they could do so in writing at a later stage. 
23. The Chairman  noted that the consideration of the goods aspects of the Turkey-Morocco free 
trade agreement had allowed the Committee to clarif y a number of questions and to conclude oral 
discussion of the RTA in accordance with paragra ph 11 of the Transparency Mechanism.  If any 
delegations wished to ask follow-up questions, they were invited to forward submissions in writing to 
the Secretariat by 7 December and Parties to submit replies in writing by no later than 21 December.  
In accordance with paragraph 13 of the Transpar ency Mechanism all written submission, as well as 
minutes of the meeting would be circulated promp tly in all WTO official languages and would be 
made available on the WTO website.   
24. The Committee took note  of the comments made. 
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