March 4, 2004
 
 
Corn Growers Set To Benefit From US-Morocco FTA Agreement
 
Corn and feed producers could benefit from the recently concluded US-Morocco Free Trade Agreement signed on Tuesday. Simultaneously, Moroccan poultry producer will benefit from lower feed grain prices, the National Corn Growers Association and U.S. Grains Council said on Wednesday.
 
"This agreement promises additional access while opening market opportunities for corn and feed grain producers," said Dee Vaughan, NCGA president.
 
Wallace Tyner, professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University, served as the lead economic consultant to the Moroccan agriculture ministry throughout the trade negotiations. He said, in a separate press release from the university, the signing of this agreement fits a recent trend developing in U.S. trade policy.
 
"While not the official position of the United States, we are moving away from multilateral trade agreements and toward more free-trade agreements with individual nations or small groups of countries," he said. "Fourteen other nations are in-line to work out similar free-trade agreements in the future."
 
Tyner assessed how different terms in the trade negotiations would affect Moroccan agriculture in his role as an economic adviser.
 
The organizations said the reduction and elimination of tariffs on U.S. corn, sorghum and barley not provides for a further expansion of the Moroccan market for feed grains, but also will allow the U.S. to capture a larger portion of that important growth market.
 
In 2002, the U.S. exported 16 million tons of corn to Morocco, generating $37 million in income, he said. Currently, U.S. exports to Morocco face an average tariff of 20%, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.