US, Morocco keen to broaden Free Trade Agreement, U.S. official

    "We are delighted to have the FTA in place and we want to do more to build on it," Hightower told MAP on the sidelines of a press conference on the Summit on Entrepreneurship announced by President Barack Obama in his Cairo speech.

    Hightower also voiced satisfaction with the Moroccan trade environment, noting that "it can always improve, and it is incumbent on both countries to continue to look at what we are doing (...) and facilitate procedures for the companies from Morocco to come and sell their goods here, as well as to provide the opportunity for US companies to provide their goods and services there."

    Moroccan-American trade exchanges reached 21.5 billion dirhams in 2008, and Morocco's exports to the U.S. doubled between 2007 and 2008.

    Hightower said a U.S. trade mission will visit the north African country in the first quarter of 2010 to give impetus to US companies which may need to understand better its market.

    Referring to difficulties facing Moroccan exports to the U.S., he said that Morocco's products go through Europe before reaching the U.S. "We have been discussing how to change that sort of process and flow to make it easier for a more direct flow."