The US-Morocco Trade and Investment Forum to be held in Atlanta, Georgia on October 13th, 2015 aims to promote investment, trade and partnership opportunities between Moroccan and U.S. companies in the areas of Energy, Aeronautics & Automotive, Water Management and Banking Finance & Services.

This forum, organized after the three successful "U.S. Morocco Business Development Conferences" in Washington, Rabat and Dallas, Texas is the first of a series of networking events across the United States to promote business opportunities with Morocco, taking into account the specific characteristics of each States and their economic fabric.

Morocco is one of the United States’ closest trading partners in the MENA region, and is the only African country to have a Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. As one of the most comprehensive FTAs that the U.S. has entered, it fully eliminated tariffs on 95% of traded goods and bolstered trade and investment between the two countries. In 2013, two-way trade totaled $3.45 billion.

The strong partnership between the two countries includes the strengthening of business and economic ties, which were enhanced since the entry of force of the U.S.-Moroccan Free Trade Agreement in 2006.

The Moroccan economy has been characterized by macroeconomic stability, with generally low inflation and sustained, moderately high growth rates over the past several years. The government has pursued an ambitious program of reforms to increase productivity and competitiveness of the national economy through sectoral strategies with the aim of ensuring strong and sustainable economic growth.

Morocco is at the crossroads of the main international exchange routes, linking the United States of America, Europe, Africa and the Middle-East.

Thanks to a wide set of free-trade agreements, Morocco offers investor free duty access to a market of 55 countries representing more than 1 billion consumers and 60% of world GDP.

It is a very cost competitive platform for trade and production thanks to its world-‐class infrastructure that has been developing steadily. The growing consumerism of Morocco’s expanding middle class is creating great opportunity for franchise businesses as more and more malls open in major cities.

Morocco offers a world class infrastructure, a business friendly environment, and unique platforms to serve your business needs, such as Tanger Med, a cargo port located about 40km east of Tangier. It is one of the largest ports on the Mediterranean and in Africa by capacity. In 2014, it handled over 3 million containers TEU, equivalent 20 foot, an increase of 20% compared to the 2.55 million TEU achieved in 2013.

The Free Zone Logistics, located in close proximity to the port via a single customs area, is an ideal platform for the establishment of logistics bases to cover Europe, the Mediterranean and Africa. Free Zone Logistics is mainly dedicated to the logistics value-added bundling, distribution and supply across international flows. It is also a storage point for distribution to other free zones in Morocco. Many operations can be performed in the zone: Order preparation, storage, packaging, labeling, assembly and quality control.