Presented by minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates, this agreement aims to fill the legal void following the withdrawal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union (EU), said minister of National Education, Higher Education, Vocational Training and Scientific Research, government spokesman, Saaid Amzazi, in a statement read at the end of the Council.

This agreement also intends to determine the framework for cooperation between the two parties at the end of the transition period following the Brexit, while preserving bilateral trade relations as well as mutual rights and commitments, as stipulated by the 1996 Euro-Mediterranean agreement establishing an association between the Kingdom of Morocco, on the one hand, and the European Communities and their member States, on the other hand, in addition to the agreement concluded in 2010 between Morocco and the EU to set up a dispute settlement mechanism, he added.

The agreement also stipulates to preserve the preferential conditions for trade between the two parties resulting from the aforementioned association agreement, to provide a basis for further bilateral trade liberalization and to establish a partnership and a free trade area for goods and related rules between the two parties, the minister said.

In order to ensure the proper implementation of this agreement, both parties have decided to establish a partnership Council and Commission, as well as agreed on the exchange of letters of understanding on dispute settlement under this agreement, and on the signing of a joint declaration on a tripartite approach on rules of origin, which will enter into force as soon as this agreement is implemented, either at the end of the two Morocco-EU agreements with the United Kingdom, or on the date of one of the last two notifications by which one party informs the other that the necessary legal procedures have been completed.