Declared “Made in Morocco,” but taxed as a Chinese product in Europe
The European Union has just maintained a hefty tariff on certain technical fabrics shipped from Morocco. The particularity: the 30.7% duty applies even when these products are declared to be of Moroccan origin.
The measure appears in a new regulation published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 10 August. It concerns certain woven or sewn fabrics made from glass fibers, used notably in the composite materials industry and in the manufacture of wind-turbine blades. Brussels is maintaining on goods shipped from Morocco the countervailing duty reserved for “other” Chinese imports, namely 30.7%.
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The text goes particularly far: the products concerned are targeted when shipped from Morocco “whether or not declared to originate” in the kingdom. The regulation entered into force the day after its publication.
Why Morocco is treated like China
This situation dates back to a European investigation completed in 2022. The Commission had concluded that the duties imposed on Chinese glass-fiber fabrics were being circumvented through exports passing via Morocco. The company examined, PGTEX Morocco, is a wholly owned subsidiary of PGTEX China and purchased all of its main raw material, glass-fiber rovings, from its Chinese parent company.
The figures had attracted Brussels’ attention. Moroccan imports of rovings from China rose from 2 378 tonnes in 2019 to 7 839 tonnes in 2020. The Commission also found that almost all the value of the components entering the products manufactured by PGTEX Morocco came from China. It ultimately considered that the operation constituted circumvention of the European measures.
The sanction was then extended to all the shipments concerned from Morocco. Brussels explained that PGTEX was the only known Moroccan producer exporting these fabrics to the Union and had refused the company the exemption it had requested.
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Four years later, the European Union is therefore not loosening its grip. After reviewing the measures nearing expiry, it decided to maintain them. For the products concerned shipped from Morocco, the declared origin is still not enough to avoid the 30.7% duty applied to Chinese imports that do not benefit from an individual rate.
