UK relations with Morocco

David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, visited Morocco on 1 June 2025. During his visit, for the fifth UK-Morocco Strategic Dialogue, he announced a new UK Government policy position towards Western Sahara and discussed trade and business opportunities for British companies in Morocco. He particularly highlighted investment opportunities ahead of the 2030 FIFA men’s World Cup, which Morocco is co-hosting with Spain and Portugal.

UK trade relations

The UK has had an association agreement with Morocco since 2019, to replace the EU-Morocco Agreement that ceased to apply following the UK’s exit from the EU. It entered into force in January 2021. Baroness Gustafsson, a Minister in the Department for Business and Trade, set out the UK’s priorities regarding Morocco in a written Parliamentary response in May 2025:

The UK-Morocco Association Agreement, which entered into force in January 2021, facilitates our trading relationship. HM Government is keen to strengthen trade ties with Morocco. In January 2025, Ben Coleman MP was appointed Trade Envoy for Morocco and Francophone West Africa. Total trade in goods and services (exports plus imports) between the UK and Morocco was £4.2 billion in 2024, up £0.6bn in current prices from 2023.

In March 2025, Gareth Thomas MP, Minister of State for Services, Small Business and Exports, visited Morocco with a delegation of businesses to showcase UK support for major infrastructure projects and signed a declaration of intent with the Head of the World Cup Committee to progress UK-Morocco collaboration on Morocco’s co-hosting of the Men’s Football World Cup in 2030. The UK looks forward to working with Morocco on this event and other infrastructure projects.

Total trade in goods and services between the UK and Morocco was £4.2 billion in 2024. Morocco was the UK’s 51^st largest trading partner, accounting for 0.2% of total trade in 2024.

The majority of UK exports to Morocco in 2024 were goods (67.7%), predominantly refined oil, metal ores and scrap, cars and mechanical power generators. The main imports from Morocco were vegetables and fruit, miscellaneous electrical goods, cars and furniture.

Further information on UK trade and investment with Morocco (PDF) is provided in a factsheet published by the Department for Business and Trade, dated 2 May 2025.

Strategic Dialogue, June 2025

The UK holds a regular Strategic Dialogue with Morocco. The fourth session was hosted in Rabat (the Moroccan capital) in May 2023 and the joint declaration covered political, security, economy, culture and education pillars.

David Lammy attended the fifth session, again hosted by Morocco, on 1 June 2025. The joint communiqué refers to the two countries 800-year history and their joint commitment to developing an “ambitious, forward-looking strategic partnership”. The UK and Morocco also “reaffirmed their mutual commitment to deepening collaboration across all dimensions: political, diplomatic, security, economic, cultural and people-to-people exchanges”.

The communiqué also said the signing of a number of agreements and memoranda of understanding (MOUs) “will give new impetus to the bilateral partnership” and deepen cooperation in areas including “healthcare, water, energy, transport, defence and procurement”.