FOM Newsletter Fall 1999: News Round Up 12/03/99
Casablanca Hosts Mediterranean Book and Publishing Show
The "SEL 99" Mediterranean book and publishing show dubbed "The Mediterranean, the cradle of civilizations and cultures" opened here Wednesday at the Casablanca International Fair. The event held under the patronage of King Mohammed VI gathers 72 publishing houses from several mediterranean countries. Portugal, the special guest this year is staging several activities during the show under the generic heading "Arab-Islamic Memories in Portugal".
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Morocco Calls WTO to Heed Developing Nations' Concerns in Future Multilateral Negotiations.
Morocco on Wednesday called the World Trade Organization (WTO) to heed concerns of developing nations in the future multilateral negotiations. Moroccan industry, trade and handicraft minister, Alami Tazi, told the World Trade Organization, negotiations should take into account the concerns of developing nations, contained in the Marrakesh Declaration, which crowned the GATT conference, held in 1994 in this Moroccan southern city. Morocco deplored the unfair sharing of results brought about by the Uruguay round and insisted that upcoming negotiations on agriculture should correct the imperfections of the World trade of agricultural produce.
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WTO: Morocco Calls for Larger Liberalization for Agricultural Produce.
Morocco on Wednesday called for a larger liberalization for agricultural produce and for a tangible cut in customs duties.
The call was made by Morocco during a meeting of the market access working group, held on the fringes of the third ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Seattle, USA.
Morocco also urged participants to set up a negotiations group on market access for fisheries and forest products which require a rational exploitation.
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Morocco to Build in Casablanca Industrial Waste Treatment with German Help.
Morocco is studying the possibility of building in the megalopolis of Casablanca an industrial waste treatment plant with the help of Germany. Moroccan secretary of state for environment, Youssef Tahiri, examined the project with managers of German chemical and pharmaceutical giant "Bayer" and visited similar facilities used by Bayer to dispose of industrial waste.
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As Petroleum Price Increases, Debate Focuses On The Tax Regime In Morocco .
Marrakech - The price of crude oil is going up. Last week on the International Petroleum Exchange, Brent North Sea crude reached $25.09 per barrel (Wednesday) for December delivery, settling at $24.95 on Friday. Oil producers have not seen such high prices since January 1991. But while OPEC countries saw their revenues soar 72%, to $45 billion, in third quarter 1999, Morocco fears that price increases will damage its vulnerable economy. So far there has not been any negative impact of high crude prices on the Moroccan economy. If fact it would probably take two to three weeks, or at least until mid-December, to have a better assessment of the issue.
This is primarily due to the availability of 2 to 3 weeks worth of crude oil in Moroccan refineries. But in reality consumers in Morocco fear that they will have to pay a higher price for their energy needs, in spite of the reassuring comments of Youssef Tahiri, minister of energy and mines. Mr. Tahiri told the parliament "the government will do all it can to protect the buying power of the consumer in the context of the recent changes on the world market. We are studying the possibility to involve the subsidy fund (Caisse de Compensation) during the month of Ramadhan." Thus, the Moroccan government is expected to subsidize energy consumption. It already did so in the past by earmarking up to DH 250 million for petroleum products. The debate over the issued has now focused on the tax regime, considered too heavy for the sector. The industry says that taxes account for the largest portion of petroleum prices in Morocco, and if the crude oil price rise was to impact domestic prices, it would only affect some one third of the price structure. According to an expert employed by the ministry of energy, the actual cost of petroleum in Morocco accounts for between 15% to 25% of domestic prices. The remainder is taxes. The tax known as Taxe Interieure de Consommation (Domestic Consumption Tax) alone generates some DH 9 billion to the Moroccan treasury. This amount accounts for 14% of the state's regular revenue according, to a report released by the employer federation CGEM. This heavy tax forces domestic businesses to avoid investing in petroleum- based industries, and is often the cause of high production costs in many other industries.
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Nine groups bid to assess Moroccan carrier's privatization.
Business, 12/3/99
Nine groups are to bid for the assessment of the placement modes of the Moroccan carrier, Royal Air Maroc (RAM), for its privatization, Moroccan L'Economiste daily reported.
The Public Sector Ministry, which will open the bid files next week, has not revealed the amount of RAM's capital to be open to the private sector, the daily said. The bidding groups are Wafa Trust/Mc Kinsey, BNP-Paribas/BMCI/CHE, ABN Amro-Rotschild/Commerzbank/BMCE-Rolland Berger, Crídit commercial de France/Upline Securities/Charter House, Sociítí gínírale Paris-London/SGMB, Attijari Finance/Chase Manhattan/IBA, Crídit Lyonnais/Crídit du Maroc/Airclaims, BNDE/Natexis/Banque populaire, France/Arthur Anderson, and CFG/Salomon Brothers/GRA. RAM's capital stands at $114 million, 94.38% of which is owned by the state and the remaining is shared by Air France (3.97%), Spanish Iberia (1.32%) and Moroccan private operators (0.33%). RAM operates a 31-plane fleet, servicing a network of 57 cities in 36 countries. The carrier employs 5,429 persons, including 1,261 in maintenance services. The airliner expects to transport 3.4 million persons and 27,000 tons of freight at the end of 1999.
RAM is to invest $1.5 billion for the development of its long, medium and domestic lines between 2002 and 2012.
