Wheat Board eager for Canada-Morocco trade deal
Reuters | Tue Feb 2, 2010
Wheat Board eager for Canada-Morocco trade deal
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) — The Canadian Wheat Board welcomes Morocco’s steep reduction this week of tariffs on durum and soft wheat, but the North African country’s fluctuating tariffs highlight the need for a free-trade agreement, a CWB official said on Tuesday.
Morocco’s state grains agency ONICL said on Monday the country had slashed its durum wheat import tariff to 80 percent from 170 percent and its soft wheat tariff to 90 percent from 135 percent.
Morocco had raised the tariffs last year to shield its farmers from foreign competition.
The reductions were good news for the Wheat Board, which is one of the world’s biggest grain marketers, but not surprising as Morocco often makes such changes, CWB spokesman John Lyons said.
"Largely, it’s business as usual, because Morocco does move their tariffs around," he said.
Morocco was the Wheat Board’s third biggest durum export market in the 2008/09 crop year, buying C$200 million ($189 million) worth of Western Canadian durum, which is used in pasta, Lyons said. The shipping volume was not available.
U.S. farmers will gain duty-free access for their grain in 2016 because of the United States-Morocco free-trade deal, he said.
"Western Canadian farmers really need a similar deal to level the playing field."
Canadian and Moroccan officials met in Rabat last April to discuss possibly opening free-trade talks.
($1=$1.06 Canadian)
(Reporting by Rod Nickel; Editing by Walter Bagley)
