On May 4, a Moroccan delegation led by Omar Hejira, Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, landed in Cairo for a high-level working visit. Officially, the aim was to deepen economic relations between the two countries, promote regional integration and activate existing trade agreements. Unofficially, the visit was above all a signal of de-escalation and a gesture of economic reconciliation after a series of sometimes virulent trade crises between Rabat and Cairo.
The delegation, which included over forty Moroccan business leaders and representatives of the main employers’ federations, including CGEM, ASMEX and AMITH, was welcomed in a cooperative spirit, according to Omar Hejira. On the Egyptian side, the welcome was orchestrated by the Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade, Hassan El-Khatib. The desire to relaunch exchanges was reflected in the holding of a bilateral B2B Economic Forum, which enabled operators from both countries to renew ties and identify new opportunities for collaboration. Both sides are now talking of a« new era« .
Turning the page
In addition to formal gestures, the two sides agreed on a series of concrete measures: the creation of a joint public-private platform to remove obstacles to trade, the regular organization of business forums in both countries, strategic coordination on African markets, and above all, the implementation of a customs fast-track mechanism designed to facilitate access for Moroccan products to the Egyptian market.
This mechanism, already discussed at the ministerial meeting in Rabat on February 27, is a response to long-standing grievances expressed by Moroccan exporters. Excessive paperwork, repeated administrative blockages, systematic delays… these are just some of the obstacles that have turned access to the Egyptian market into a veritable obstacle course. « We’ve been suffering on the Egyptian market for years. Despite the free-trade agreement, we’re finding it hard to get in, » confided a member of the Moroccan Exporters Association (ASMEX) almost two months ago.
These obstacles are all the more worrying given the size of the potential. According to Omar Hejira, Moroccan exports to Egypt could rise from the current 755 million dirhams to 5 billion by 2027. This ambition implies the effective lifting of barriers, but also an in-depth reconfiguration of the export sectors.
Healing wounds
Trade relations between the two countries have long been marked by mistrust and even rivalry. For example, when a convoy of Renault vehicles produced in Tangier was refused entry to Egypt, triggering an equally firm Moroccan response, with the blocking of Egyptian containers at Tanger Med.
Over the years, several episodes have soured the dialogue: an anti-dumping investigation into Egyptian carpets, targeted taxation on processed tomatoes, Moroccan complaints about the flooding of the textile market, to site a few examples. The backdrop is an increasingly glaring trade imbalance in Egypt’s favor: a 12 billion dirham deficit for Morocco, according to the latest figures from the Office des Changes.
Egyptian exports, dominated by soybean oil, building materials, electronics and textiles, are crushing Moroccan exports, which are mainly limited to agri-foodstuffs and a few building materials, notably stone, plaster, cement and similar materials.
Think industries, not products
Faced with this structural imbalance, some players are now calling for a real change of direction. Interviewed by TelQuel after the meeting in Cairo, Mohamed Ali Tazi, President of the Morocco-Egypt Business Council, believes it’s time to put an end to a purely transactional logic, centered on flows of goods without any real industrial integration. « We can’t develop trade relations just by importing or exporting finished products. We need to take a more direct approach, and enter clearly into value chains », he argues.
« We have the expertise, they have the demand. This is typically the kind of reciprocity necessary if we want to build this relationship over the long term »
Egypt’s booming automotive industry offers fertile ground. Morocco could play a structuring role by supplying spare parts, components and logistical know-how. The same applies to textiles: rather than confronting a more competitive Egyptian industry, the Kingdom would benefit from integrating Egyptian raw materials into its own production cycles, and then exporting higher value-added products to Europe. « We have the expertise, they have the demand. This is typically the kind of reciprocity necessary if we want to build this relationship over the long term », emphasizes Mohamed Ali Tazi.
Signs of disagreement
But not all sectors share the same starting position. In textiles, the imbalance is particularly glaring. The Moroccan industry, which has been confronted for years with a massive influx of low-cost Egyptian products, is denouncing what it sees as unfair competition. And tensions have recently been ratcheted up a notch. Ahead of the Morocco Fashion Style & Tex trade show, scheduled to take place in Casablanca from May 28 to 31, 2025, the Association marocaine des industries du textile et de l’habillement (AMITH) has sounded the alarm.
In a letter addressed to the President of the Casablanca Chamber of Commerce, its President, Anass El Ansari, expressed alarm at the institutional support given to a fair which promotes foreign products, notably from Egypt and Turkey, at a time when national production remains fragile. « This type of initiative, if continued without supervision, risks creating unfair competition, by facilitating the flooding of the local market with low-cost imported products », he denounces.
He adds:« Such an approach could seriously weaken our industrialists and run counter to the state’s strategic orientations in terms of industrial sovereignty ». AMITH therefore calls for the suspension of operational support for the event, and warns of the risk of blurring the strategic message conveyed by the State in favor of local industrial development. A copy of the letter has been sent to the Minister of Industry, Ryad Mezzour.
For Mohamed Ali Tazi, this tension underlines the urgent need for a change of method. Maintaining a purely competitive logic, in a context of unbalanced competitiveness, can only fuel tensions. « As long as we remain focused on exporting finished products to a highly competitive Egyptian industry, particularly in the textile sector, we will remain vulnerable. The alternative is integration. Our industries need to talk to each other, join forces and structure themselves together.
From words to deeds
« There’s a window opening. The ball is in our court. We have to go after this market, even if we’re not competitive everywhere. In certain segments – luxury goods, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals – we have a real card to play »
But for this shift to become a reality, we still have to overcome the reluctance. Many Moroccan operators still regard Egypt as a closed, time-consuming and opaque market. we often hear, « They don’t make any effort, we waste time ». Mistrust is still palpable, and political promises will not be enough to reverse this perception.
The Chairman of the Morocco-Egyptian Business Council, for his part, prefers to see this as an opportunity:« There’s a window of opportunity opening up. The ball is in our court. We have to go after this market, even if we’re not competitive everywhere. In certain segments – luxury goods, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals – we have a real card to play.
This logic of cross-industrialization is not limited to the automotive and textile industries. It could also be extended to other sectors discussed at the Cairo meeting, including pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, engineering and food processing. These are all high-potential sectors in which the strengths of each of the countries’ economies can be exploited more effectively. In fact, a new meeting is planned for the coming weeks, this time in Morocco. It could provide an opportunity to broaden discussions, involve manufacturers to a greater extent and identify new, as yet underexplored, areas of cooperation.
While the political will to turn the page has been clearly demonstrated on the Egyptian side, its realization also depends on the ability of Moroccan players to seize the opportunity. For Mohamed Ali Tazi, it’s no longer a question of waiting for signals of openness, but of building concrete bridges. He speaks of a « momentum » that should not be missed, calling on Moroccan operators to move away from a wait-and-see posture and, sector by sector, seek out opportunities where they exist. The ground is open. All that remains is to occupy it.
Written in French by Safae Hadri, edited in English by Theodore Griffin.
