Proceedings of the 13 th Meeting of the
COMCEC Agriculture Working Group
19
6. Member Country Presentations
In this section, member country representatives had a chance to present their experiences with
regards to agricultural trade policies.
6.1.Malaysia
Dr. Roslina Binri ALI from Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute, made a
presentation on Malaysian agricultural and food trade. At the outset, Dr. ALI informed the
participants on GDP share of sectors in Malaysia. She underlined that agriculture is not a top sector
in terms of GDP share. The share of GDP of agriculture was 8.1% in 2017.
Dr. ALI highlighted that value added in the agriculture sector was decreasing in 2016, but it
increased in 2017. She underlined that Malaysia had a trade surplus from 2013 to 2017. She also
informed the participants on trade partners of Malaysia and their trade shares in 2017 and 2018.
Moreover, Dr. ALI stressed that there was also a trade surplus for agricultural trade in Malaysia
between 2013-2017. She pointed out that there was a trade deficit in food trade between 2013-
2017. She continued her presentation by informing participants about Malaysia’s agricultural food
trade by commodities in 2017.
Dr. ALI underlined that the total trade of Malaysia with OIC Member Countries has been decreasing
since 2013. The total trade with OIC member countries was 7.15 billion USD in 2013, 4.9 billion
USD in 2017. She informed the participants that Indonesia is the top OIC Member Country with a
2.4 billion USD trade volume in 2017.
Dr. ALI informed the participants regarding the status of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) of
Malaysia. Malaysia has implemented 7 bilateral FTAs and 6 regional FTAs. 2 FTAs are engaged with
the OIC member countries (Pakistan-2008 and Turkey-2015). In the last part of her presentation,
she gave detailed information on the said FTAs with Pakistan and Turkey.
6.2.Morocco
Ms. Imane REGRAGUI, Head of Department of Trade with Other Markets than UE and USA, Ministry
of Agriculture of Morocco, made a presentation on GreenMorocco Plan and its results. At the outset,
Ms. REGRAGUI informed the participants regarding the objectives assigned to agricultural trade
policy under the Green Morocco Plan. She also informed the participants on the adopted trade
policy measures in line with the objectives of the Green Morocco Plan. She underlined that 7
indicators were determined to evaluate agricultural policy measures.
Ms. REGRAGUI continued her presentation by sharing statistics on agricultural trade. She
underlined that there has been an increase in agricultural trade between 2003 to 2017. She also
highlighted that there was a structural agricultural trade deficit in the same period.
Ms. REGRAGUI touched upon the structure of agricultural trade in Morocco. She argued that the
dynamism experienced by the export sector of agricultural products in recent years has enabled
Morocco to become one of the world's leading exporters.
In the last part of her presentation, Ms. REGRAGAU shared information on tariff reform of
agricultural products, whichwas operationalized in 2013 and evaluation of agricultural trade under
trade preferential agreements.