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Wednesday 11 July 2018

Morocco Keen to Enhance Cooperation with UNCTAD, Official

Vocal synthesis
Morocco Keen to Enhance Cooperation with UNCTAD, Official

Morocco is keen to step up cooperation with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), State Secretary for Foreign Trade, Rakiya Eddarhem, said Monday in Geneva.

This came in a meeting with the UNCTAD's Secretary-General, Mukhisa Kituyi, on the sidelines of the 3rd Session of the Intergovernmental Group of Experts on Consumer Protection Law and Policy held on July 9-10 in Geneva, the State Secretariat for Foreign Trade said in a release.

On this occasion, Eddarhem underlined the need to strengthen cooperation between the UNCTAD and other international organizations in order to develop coherent development strategies and to adopt a new comprehensive and integrated approach to multilateralism, particularly with the return of protectionist tendencies.

The Moroccan official suggested organizing a meeting of African trade ministers to discuss the coherence between the three levels of negotiations in which African countries are engaged, namely the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA), preferential agreements with third parties and WTO negotiations, in order to use the CFTA as a lever for Africa's structural transformation and industrialization.

During the meeting, the UNCTAD's Secretary-General congratulated Morocco on the progress made in protecting consumers, noting that the Kingdom has set up a genuine national system in this area.

Eddarhem asked Kituyi to accompany Morocco in the implementation of the recommendations made by the Intergovernmental Group of Experts in order to develop consumer protection in the Kingdom, through the strengthening of the capacities of stakeholders at the national level.

For his part, Kituyi stressed the importance of sharing the Moroccan experience in this area with other African countries and lauded Morocco's leading role in migration at the continental level.

MAP 11 July 2018