RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONS/C/W/157
6 July 2000
(00-2777)
Council for Trade in Services Original:  French
COMMUNICATION FROM MOROCCO
Note on Exemptions Concerning Road Transport
The following communication has been received from the delegation of Morocco with the
request that it be circulated to members of the Council for Trade in Services.
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I. CURRENT REGULATIONS AND DIVISION OF THE MARKET
A. CURRENT REGULATIONS
1. In Morocco, in order to provide road transport services for persons and goods on a
commercial basis, whether domestically or internationally, a transport operator (natural or legalperson) must have authorization from the Transport Commission, which issues a transport permit,
either for freight, showing the number and total author ized loaded weight of lorries on the road, or for
passengers, showing the number and capacity of the buses authorized to operate.
2. International road transport (TIR) is covered by bilateral or multilateral agreements between
Morocco and third countries (see the list of countries with which Morocco has agreements in
Annex 1).
3. In order to obtain one of the aforementioned authorizations, applicants must be Moroccan
citizens.
B. 
DIVISION OF THE TIR MARKET
(a) For imports, 95 per cent of the TIR traffic is supplied by foreign companies under
bilateral agreements (see details in Annex 2).
(b) For exports, 90 per cent of the TIR traffic is also provided by foreign companies (see
details in Annex 2).
II. REFORM OF THE ROAD TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM FOR FREIGHT
A. OBJECTIVES OF THE REFORM
4. The reform of the road transportation system for freight is set out in Law No. 16-99, adopted
by the Moroccan Parliament in January 2000, which will enter into effect on 16 March 2003.  Thisreform liberalizes road transportation of freight by abolishing the freight monopoly granted to a public
body.  It provides for the following:S/C/W/157
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(a) Professionalization of the road transportation of freight, road haulage agents and
rental agents for heavy goods vehicles on the basis of integrity, professional, and
financial capacity and, as a result, free access to the market;
(b) abolition of quotas for vehicles, whose number and capacity will henceforward be
determined by the operator himself;
(c) deregulation of road haulage rates for freight and regular publication of reference
rates.
5. The reform will also lead to the integration of  the informal sector that transports freight for
third parties, which is currently not regulated and is carried out by vehicles not exceeding eight tonnes
of total authorized loaded weight.
B. PREREQUISITES FOR SUCCESS OF THE REFORM
6. This reform will place restrictions on Moroccan companies that already face strong
competition from foreign firms.  The automatic and immediate opening of the market could purely
and simply lead to the disappearance of the majority of Moroccan companies and will distort
competition due to:
(a) The disintegration of virtually all the companies, the inadequacy of their financial
coverage and their limited viability (less than two vehicles per operator), in
comparison with some firms able to set up regional and interregional oligopolies;
(b) the lack of an appropriate training mechanism;
(c) over-development of the informal sector, which accounts for one third of the traffic
under anti-economic conditions and causes serious traffic accidents;
(d) the lack of reliable data and indicators, which should be supplied by a transport
monitoring centre that is able to monitor the proper functioning of the market based
on equal fiscal and social costs, application of the relevant regulations and penalties
for violations.
7. For these reasons and in order to attain the objectives set for the aforementioned reform, a
plan of action has been drawn up for the transitional period 2000-2003 to allow Moroccan companies
to adapt to the new competitive environment by strengthening their competitive capacity through:
(a) Revision of the onerous tax system currently applicable in the transport industry;
(b) simplification and computerization of registration procedures for the professional
registers and for putting vehicles on the road;
(c) the setting up of a transport monitoring centre and the initiation of an electronic
freight exchange;
(d) enhancing skills by opening a vocational training centre for transport operators, road
transport agents and their administrative auxiliaries, logistics experts, TIR lorrydrivers, etc;S/C/W/157
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(e) regrouping splintered companies into viable units capable of operating in a
competitive environment.
8. When Law No. 16-99 enters into effect, road haulage firms under Moroccan law will be able
to operate in Morocco, irrespective of the origin of the funds invested in the transport industry,
provided that they meet the aforementioned access requirements, including professional capacity, as is
the case in other European countries where access to the road transport market is organized.
9. Consequently, a system should be set up between Morocco and other countries concerned
whereby certificates of capacity are deemed to be equivalent or agreement should be reached on a
reciprocity regime based on criteria defined by common agreement.
C. OUTLOOK
10. At present, the competent services of the Moroccan Ministry of Transport and the Merchant
Navy, in consultation with the profession, ar e studying the design, adoption and medium-term
implementation of a system to reform passenger tr ansport that will incorporate and harmonize the
various categories of service (urban, interurban, rural, tourism, school transport, international, etc.).  It
is envisaged that this reform will be adopted in the year 2005.S/C/W/157
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ANNEX 1
International road transport operations (TIR)
I. GENERAL
In 1998, TIR operations were as follows:
1998 1999 % Variation
1997-1998
Number of trips 52,592 56,476 +17
Tonnage carried 836,038 T 883,987 T +12
Turnover DH 203,648,630 DH 208,525,362 +18
II. EXPORT OPERATIONS
TIR export operations showed an increase of 21 per cent in the number of trips, five per cent
in the tonnage carried and ten per cent in turnover.
The five major products transported by road for export were as follows:
In tonnes
Period Made-up
articlesHandicrafts Vegetables Citrus
fruitsFish Miscellaneous Total
1999 227,765 3,618 220,112 45,742 106,443 227,855 831,681
1998 216,800 3,522 214,183 67,730 100,013 191,597 793,845
% Variation +5 +3 -3 +32 +7 +5 +5S/C/W/157
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ANNEX 2
Bilateral Agreements
Country Subject Date of signature Present situation
MOROCCO – FRANCE ATIRVM 13 February 1974 in RABAT Entered into force on 1 April 1976
MOROCCO – SPAIN ATIRV
ATIRM3 December 1976 in MADRID
31 March 1988 in RABATEntered into force on 4 July 1978
Ratified on 21 December 1990
MOROCCO – SWEDEN ATIRVM 29 August 1979 in STOCKHOLM Entered into force on 6 August 1981
MOROCCO – FINLAND ATIRVM 26 October 1979 in RABAT Ratified on 14 November 1986
MOROCCO – BELGO –
LUXEMBOURG ECONOMIC
UNIONATIRVM 12 May 1981 in BRUSSELS Ratified on 21 July 1993
MOROCCO – NETHERLANDS ATIRVM 5 April 1982 in RABAT Entered into force on 14 May 1985
MOROCCO – FRG ATIRVM 25 June 1985 in BONN Entered into force on 28 May 1993
MOROCCO – SWITZERLAND
and PRINCIPALITY OFLIECHTENSTEINATIRVM 24 October 1986 in BERN Ratified on 28 May 1993
MOROCCO – PORTUGAL ATIRVM 18 October 1988 in RABAT Entered into force on 23 June 1995
MOROCCO – AMU ATIRVM 6 May 1990 in ALGERIA Ratified on 7 July 1993
MOROCCO – HUNGARY ATIRVM 15 October 1990 in BUDAPEST Ratified on 10 December 1999
MOROCCO – AUSTRIA ATIRVM 16 November 1990 in RABAT
MOROCCO – ITALY ATIRVM 25 February 1992 in ROME Entered into force on 17 June 1998
MOROCCO – EGYPT ATIRVM 15 June 1992 in CAIRO Ratified on 29 August 1997
MOROCCO – POLAND ATIRVM 1 February 1993 in WARSAW Entered into force on 1 February 1993
MOROCCO – UNITED
KINGDOMATIRVM 15 April 1994 in MARRAKESH Ratified on 4 January 1996
MOROCCO – ROMANIA ATIRVM 25 April 1996 in BUCHAREST Ratified on 15 February 2000
MOROCCO – BELGIUM ATIRVM 14 July 1997 in RABAT
MOROCCO – JORDAN ATIRVM 16 June 1998 in RABAT Ratified on 20 March 2000
MOROCCO – GRAND DUCHY
OF LUXEMBOURGATIRVM 2 February 1999 in RABAT Ratified on 15 February 2000
Draft Agreements
Country Subject Present situation
MOROCCO – DENMARK PATIRVM Initialled in RABAT on 11 November 1997
MOROCCO – LATVIA PATIRVM Initialled in RABAT on 29 May 1998
MOROCCO – TUNISIA PATIRVM Initialled in TUNIS on 5 April 2000
MOROCCO – CZECHOSLOVAKIA PATIRVM
MOROCCO – BULGARIA PATIRVM
MOROCCO – NORWAY PATIRVM
MOROCCO – GREECE PATIRVM
MOROCCO – SAUDI ARABIA PATIRVM
MOROCCO – IRAN PATIRVM
ATIRVM: Agreement on International Road Transportation of Passengers and Freight
ATIRV: Agreement on International Road Transportation of Passengers
ATIRM: Agreement on International Road Transportation of FreightPATIRVM: Draft agreement on International Road Transportation of Passengers and Freight
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