Rabat: Strengthening Economic and Trade Exchanges at the Heart of Talks Between Omar Hejira and a Mauritanian Employers’ Delegation
Strengthening economic and trade exchanges between Morocco and Mauritania was at the heart of talks held on Friday in Rabat between the Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, Omar Hejira, and a delegation of the Mauritanian employers’ federation, led by the President of the National Union of Mauritanian Employers (UNPM), Mohamed Zeine El Abidine Ould Cheikh Ahmed.
This meeting, held notably in the presence of the Director General of the Customs and Indirect Tax Administration (ADII), Abdellatif Amrani, provided an opportunity to explore cooperation prospects, particularly in the areas of logistics, goods transit, as well as the development of Mauritanian exports to the Moroccan market and, beyond that, to European and international markets.
In a statement to the press on this occasion, the President of the UNPM stressed that this visit aims to strengthen trade exchanges between Morocco and Mauritania, in line with the vision of His Majesty King Mohammed VI and Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani.
The Mauritanian private sector is fully committed to contributing to this strengthening, he said, noting that “all difficulties related to exports were raised and clear instructions were given to remove them”.
Zeine El Abidine Ould Cheikh Ahmed also announced that among the important decisions taken during these talks, the current year will, for the first time, see Mauritanian watermelons enter Moroccan markets.
For his part, Hejira stated that this meeting aims to put in place all the measures needed to facilitate African exports’ access to European and global markets.
According to him, the discussions focused on mechanisms to ease the transit of Mauritanian goods, particularly through the El Guerguarat border crossing, as well as on measures to be implemented to reduce the deficit recorded in the trade balance between the two countries.
In addition, Hejira affirmed Morocco’s openness to all proposals likely to strengthen Mauritanian exports to the Moroccan market, stressing the need for a strong and sustainable partnership between the private sectors of both countries.
Trade exchanges between Morocco and Mauritania reached an overall volume of 3.3 billion dirhams in 2024. Moroccan exports to Mauritania recorded a notable increase, rising from 1.7 billion dirhams in 2017 to 3.3 billion dirhams in 2024, while imports grew from 3 million dirhams in 2017 to 16 million dirhams in 2024.
The structure of Moroccan exports to Mauritania consists mainly of fresh and frozen vegetables, canned and processed fish products, as well as electrical appliances and cables. Imports mainly concern salted and dried fish, crustaceans, and textile products.
Moroccan investments in Mauritania, for their part, reached 18 million dirhams in 2024.
Editorial team/le7tv
