afrol News, 30 September - US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, has confirmed that the American-Moroccan negotiations over a free trade agreement are making good progress, and he expects them to by finalised by the end of the year. Moroccan sources confirm the controversial deal is on track.

The head of the US diplomacy yesterday met with Arab government representatives, businessmen and the press at the US-Arab Economic Forum in Detroit (USA). Here, he commented on the many new US initiatives to boost trade with Arab countries sympathetic to Washington. Two countries, Morocco and Bahrain, are currently negotiating a free trade agreement with the North-Americans.

- We are working with a number of Arab countries through bilateral trade and investment framework agreements to make them more hospitable to foreign trade and investment, Mr Powell said in Detroit. "The final step is to negotiate access to American markets through free trade agreements," he added.

In this regard the US government was said to make "good progress." Mr Powell said his Ministry was "on track to complete negotiations with Morocco on a Free Trade Agreement by the end of the year, and we look forward to beginning negotiations with Bahrain."

Also in Morocco, the so-called 'progress' in the free trade negotiations was hailed today. The government controlled news agency 'MAP' confirmed that the large Moroccan delegation to Detroit, led by Finance Minister Fathallah Oualalou, was satisfied with the progress made.

US President George Bush Jr and Morocco's King Mohammed VI announced in April last year their intention to negotiate a free trade agreement. It is expected that the free trade agreement with the US would bolster Morocco's economic reform program and initiative to remove barriers to foreign investment.

The first round of the negotiations started in January this year in Washington. Subsequent negotiation rounds have alternated between Morocco and the US, always with a goal of completing the negotiations by the end of 2003.

Already from the start, the negotiations have been controversial. Morocco has strong trade links with the European Union (EU), which it is bordering. Plans to establish a so-called Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Zone - including the EU, North Africa and parts of the Middle East - could be jeopardised by a US-Moroccan Free Trade Agreement.

France, which is Morocco's main ally, has already made clear statements that Rabat has to choose between free trade with the US or with the EU. While the EU seeks to include its bordering regions into a steadily growing free market, the US is currently encouraging regions such as North Africa to establish competing free trade blocks that could enter agreements with Washington.

Morocco, however, is still trying to ride on both horses. While the US-Moroccan free trade negotiations were hailed in Detroit, Moroccan Foreign Minister Mohamed Benaissa is in New York on the occasion of the 58th general assembly of the UN. Mr Benaissa was reported to have met with several of his African and European counterparts, discussing, among other things, an intensification of the Euro-Mediterranean cooperation.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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