The debate over customs duties on Morocco’s imports of medicines and medical products continued on Tuesday in the House of Representatives, with the government rejecting amendments proposed by the Justice and Development Party (PJD), thereby maintaining its stance on Article 4 of the 2026 Finance Bill.
Discussions on the article have been intense since both the general and detailed debates on the bill. The issue was also highlighted during a recent meeting attended by Samir Ahid, Director of the Moroccan Agency for Medicines and Medical Products, last Friday.
During the Finance and Economic Development Committee session, which focused on voting for amendments and the first part of the 2026 Finance Bill, Budget Delegate Minister Fouzi Lekjaa emphasized that “all reductions in customs duties will be reflected in the final retail prices of medicines.” He added that further analysis will continue, noting that customs duties on imported medicines would only be raised if there is verifiable local production capacity.
Abdallah Bouanou, head of the PJD parliamentary group, urged caution, saying the party needed more time and information before approving the government’s amendments. He highlighted concerns over the significant price differences between import costs and retail prices for some medicines, citing cases where a medicine imported for less than 1 dirham sells for as much as 94 dirhams locally.
Government’s amendments
The government’s amendments reduce customs duties on some imported medicines and medical products from 30% to 2.5%, while increasing duties on other categories from 10% to 17.5% and from 17.5% to 30%, respectively. PJD’s proposed amendments, which took a different approach, were ultimately rejected.
In a related decision, the government approved an amendment from the parliamentary majority on Article 38 of the same law, raising customs duties on certain imported rapid diagnostic tests for infectious or chronic diseases from 2.5% to 17.5%. Authorities stressed that this process is being coordinated with relevant stakeholders to ensure proper categorization within the customs tariff.
Agricultural products proposal rejected
The government also rejected an amendment proposed by MP Fatima Tamni that would have imposed protective customs duties of 22% on imported agricultural products with local equivalents, aimed at protecting small-scale farmers. Lekjaa clarified that the proposed rate is far lower than the current effective duty, which stands at 200%, arguing that adopting the lower rate could have undermined Moroccan agriculture.
The session reflects ongoing negotiations between the government and opposition over balancing public health affordability with support for local production and economic protection.
Rephrase in a different way as if you were a native American speaker as a content creation expert and do not talk about yourself or your experience in the text and do not show yourself as an artificial intelligence who wrote and fill the bullet point in the topic and speak the heart of the topic itself and dont take date of blog in ther first and dont take text like box of newsliter subscribe on post from content and romove all linke insert in content and and remove all affiliate disclosure phrases on content like this “This post may contain Amazon or other affiliate links that allow us to earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Please see our Disclosure Policy for more info” and “#” put in its place bullet point, and romove name of the web site or his links we are take a content from our new creation
