Moroccan-Spanish industrial & trade cooperation reviewed in Madrid

Prospects for bolstering industrial and trade cooperation between Morocco and Spain were reviewed at a meeting in Madrid Friday that brought together the two countries’ Industry and Trade Ministers Ryad Mezzour and Reyes Maroto.

The meeting was an opportunity to draw up a positive assessment of bilateral cooperation in industrial and business realms, in light of the momentum witnessed in relations since last April, following the roadmap adopted during the visit Spanish Government President Pedro Sánchez paid to Morocco, at the invitation of King Mohammed VI.

The meeting was also an opportunity to confirm the willingness of both parties to move from a relationship essentially commercial to a multi-sectoral partnership.

This partnership is based on the complementarities between the two countries’ economies, allowing the implementation of joint ventures with high added value, in a global context marked by geopolitical tensions, the energy crisis and the fallout of COVID-19.

Mezzour who described the meeting with his Spanish peer as “extremely interesting” said in a statement to the media that talks focused on the future of industrial and commercial cooperation between the two countries which are already extremely interconnected.

Morocco is the gateway to Africa and Spain is the gateway to Europe, said the minister, underlining that the two countries have common specific projects, and common ambitions to strengthen security in food, energy and health and preserve the sovereignty of industrial competitiveness.

The two countries work hand in hand to strengthen their strategic alliance, further deepen the commercial interactions that bind them and better understand the regional industrial value chains in a win-win logic, he said.

To achieve this goal, the two parties have agreed to establish a joint team to develop the new framework of economic partnership, putting forward concrete initiatives in areas of cooperation, to be concluded on the sidelines of the high-level meeting, scheduled for the 1st quarter of 2023.

Spain is increasingly consolidating its position as a strategic partner of Morocco with 17 billion euros of trade in 2021. First customer and supplier of the Kingdom, Spain is also the third investor in Morocco. The Kingdom absorbs 51% of Spanish exports to Africa, making it Spain’s leading client in the continent.