USDA provides overview of import regulations in Morocco

This report provides the list of certificates required by the government inspectors in charge of controlling food and agricultural imports into Morocco. Samples of newly agreed upon certificates between the Ministry of Agriculture and USDA are also provided for products of particular interest to United States.

At the points of entry, the sanitary control and the conformity with the local regulation for food and agricultural products is carried out primarily by Ministry of Agriculture inspectors. In major ports (Casablanca, Agadir, and Tanger), the importer deals with one Ministry of Agriculture office, the DCQ (Direction de Controle de la Qualité) and the dispatch of the importation documents is done internally depending of the type of product (animal, plant, raw, or processed).

Typically, the clearing process by DCQ inspectors consists of up to three major steps based on the familiarity with commodity, importer’s experience, and origin:

a) The inspector clears the commodity by merely checking the documents provided.
b) The inspector might require physical inspection of the imported commodity before clearance.
c) The inspector might require that samples of the imported goods be drawn and sent to local GOM approved laboratory for analysis.

DCQ inspectors issue a certificate that authorizes the importer to clear customs. Customs officers will not authorize the goods into the country without a certificate issued at the point of entry by the DCQ inspectors.

In order to help DCQ inspector make a quick decision and not request laboratory analysis and especially for the newly imported products, the exporter should provide extensive documentation (description of the products, lab analysis result, certification of approval by the government of the exporting country, etc.). Some importers send samples of newly imported products to the DCQ office before they ship the products to get a feel of what would be required to swiftly clear customs.

Normally, it takes less than a week to clear products through customs. If a sample of food is taken for laboratory analysis, the customs clearance may be delayed up to 8 days.

In addition, the certificates that are typically required by customs office are:

• Bill of lading
• Original invoice
• Packing List
• Certificate issued by the Ministry of Agriculture DCQ that the commodity has been inspected and passed the sanitary control.
• Certificate of Origin. Although under the upcoming FTA with the US the certificate of origin will not be requested and the origin will be determined by the importer’s declaration and accompanying documents (invoice, bill of lading, etc..)

Read the full USDA report

Publication date: October 25 2006
Author: Dennis van der Westen
Copyright: www.freshplaza.com