Casablanca – The Brazilian minister of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, Miguel Jorge, and the Moroccan minister of Foreign Trade, Abdellatif Maazouz, signed on Friday (30), in Casablanca, a memorandum of understanding to establish a bilateral committee whose objective it is to promote trade and investment.
According to Jorge, the agreement should simplify trade relations between both countries. "Many of the problems [in bilateral transactions] are being overcome as we now have a priority position, a privileged one, in trade simplification relations," he said. "It is therefore important for us to come [here] to see the problems and to sign agreements to solve questions that halt greater trade," he said.
More than identifying bottlenecks, the committee should serve to identify opportunities in the areas of trade and investment, as well as supplying information to diplomats who are currently negotiating a tariff preference treaty between the Mercosur and Morocco.
The evaluation of the Ministry of Development is that the agenda of this committee should be positive, as there are no complaints about businessmen with regard to hardships in Morocco. The idea is that this discussion forum should help bilateral trade advance more rapidly.
The memorandum was signed at the opening of the Brazil-Morocco trade seminar at Golden Tulip Farah hotel, in the centre of the Moroccan economic capital. Morocco is the last step of the trade delegation to North Africa promoted by the Ministry of Development. Previously, the delegation of government members, sector organisations and businessmen had been to Libya, Algeria and Tunisia.
Jorge evaluated the trip positively. "Our evaluation is very good. We closed some important agreements that we cannot reveal as they are between private companies and governments, but there was, for example, the Randon agreement, for US$ 30 million," he declared, referring to the announcement of road equipment producer plans to deliver at least US$ 30 million in products in Algeria this year, as informed by ANBA last Wednesday.
The minister also said that important business opportunities were identified in areas like civil construction. "It is important for new markets to be opened and the great differential of Brazil is the transfer of technology to these countries at no cost, as is the case in the agricultural sector, production of food and even in great civil construction works," he said.
Jorge pointed out that the Brazilian companies that invest abroad train labour and transfer know how in the areas of technology and services.
Before leaving to Brazil, the minister was invited to a meeting with the king of Morocco, Mohamed VI, in Fez, one of the royal cities in the country. The capital is Rabat. "This places Brazil on another level," said Jorge. According to him, it is not common for the monarch to receive foreign ministers during official visits. "It is a very important reference," he pointed out.
Trade Council
Apart from the government committee, the president of the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, Salim Schahin, and the secretary general at the organisation, Michel Alaby, suggested to private sector representatives the establishment of a Brazil-Morocco Trade Council, and the idea was accepted by the General Council of Moroccan Companies (CGEM), an organisation that represents the businessmen in the country.
"Several delegations were promoted from Brazil to Morocco and from Morocco to Brazil, but trade is still shy," said Schahin during the seminar.
The president at the Arab Brazilian Chamber, on answering the audience’s questions, also stated that businessmen talk to their governments for the solution of logistics problems that affect trade, especially deficiencies in air and maritime transport. He pointed out, however, that the air and maritime routes are established by private companies that need to see business opportunities for the opening of new routes.
*Translated by Mark Ament
