U.S. – Morocco Free Trade Agreement: Textile and Apparel Provisions

Currently one of the trade agreements we have is the U.S. – Morocco Free Trade Agreement (FTA) for Textile and Apparel Provisions. This agreement brings back the “yarn forward” in an agreement with the Middle East. The Morocco, Israel, and Jordan FTAs permit the unlimited utilization of third-country yarn and apparel and are entitled to duty-free actions.
The Morocco FTA is a temporary agreement that is for no more than a ten year period. This is a Tariff Preference Level (TPL) that is equal to .08% of the total U.S. imports and has a stipulation supported by the domestic end cotton industry to use cotton from sub-Saharan African countries that are not as developed.
One of the good things about this FTA is that it is a reciprocal agreement on a product by product basis. For any given product we import form Morocco there is no tariff as is with the same product Morocco imports from the U.S. Also for a lot of the textile products the tariffs will be removed over the next six years. In addition, other selected products will be duty free; this will allow the U.S. access to Morocco’s textile market and Morocco to ours.
There is a safety net in the agreement that lets either country to go back to the Most Favored Nation status if imports damage their domestic end production. This agreement also allows for proof of textile production and lets customs officials refuse entry or refuse the duty free status if the production of those items cannot be verified. This agreement has a small impact on domestic end production and should take the place of other high cost imports from other countries.

http://www.ustr.gov/Document_Library/Fact_Sheets/2004/U.S._-_Morocco_Free_Trade_Agreement_Textile_Apparel_Provisions.html