Moroccan Trade Minister Ryad Mezzour visits Budapest for high-level talks

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó met with the Moroccan trade minister in Budapest on Monday, his ministry said in a statement.

At a joint press conference after the meeting, Szijjártó said Hungary’s government was interested in fostering the broadest possible economic ties between the European Union and Morocco. He added that Brussels had made a series of economic policy mistakes “on a historical scale” recently as it aimed to isolate the continent from the other parts of the world.

He pointed to the serious impact to the European economy of tariffs on Chinese car makers, in spite of protests by a number of member states, and said Brussels had proven incapable of negotiating reductions of United States tariffs on the EU. He added that the EU’s decision to roll out tariffs on a number of African countries, including Morocco, was “simply nonsense”.

Szijjártó said Africa’s population would grow by close to 1 billion in the coming 50 years, which was why Europe needed to draft a wide-ranging development strategy to ensue enough jobs there to prevent a humanitarian crisis or a migration crisis.

“Instead of tariffs on African countries, we want to see Brussels come up with a broad, reasoned development strategy for Africa that can prevent illegal migration,” he added.

Szijjártó said Morocco was Hungary’s biggest trade partner in Africa in 2024, with bilateral trade reaching USD 400m. This year bilateral trade is up more than 20pc, he added.

He welcomed closer cooperation in the areas of digitalisation, the defence industry, water management and the food industry. He said the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, which Morocco will host, along with the 2030 FIFA World Cup, could offer big business opportunities to Hungarian companies.

Szijjártó noted that Hungary offers scholarships to 165 Moroccan students each year to enroll at Hungarian universities.

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