Importing from China to Morocco: the one market that lets you choose
Morocco is the only market in this series that lets the buyer choose where conformity is checked. The Ministry of Industry and Trade operates a mixed system: control at the border for some products, and for the rest the control takes place in the dispatch country. Goods arriving without a prior inspection must be certified by one of three authorised bodies at the border.
Morocco is the only market in this series where you pick the control point: inspect in the dispatch country, or certify at the Moroccan border on arrival.
A choice no other market in this series offers
Nigeria makes the certificate impossible once the vessel sails. Turkey checks at import and nothing has to happen in China at all. South Africa wants a product approval months before you import. Morocco does something different again: it lets the control happen at either end, and leaves the choice largely to you.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade describes the arrangement as a mixed one. Control takes place at border posts on arrival for a named group of products, and for the remaining industrial products, in the Ministry's own words, le contrôle s'effectuera dans les pays d'expédition, the control will take place in the dispatch countries. The Ministry's notice on mandatory standards then completes the picture: products subject to import control must obtain a certificate of conformity from one of three authorised inspection bodies on arrival at the Moroccan border, provided they have not been inspected before shipment.
Read that last clause carefully, because it is the whole decision. Inspection before shipment removes the border certificate. Skipping it does not make the requirement disappear; it moves the requirement to a place where failing it is far more expensive.
| Market | Control point | Who decides |
|---|---|---|
| Nigeria | In China, before shipment, with no arrival remedy | The rule |
| Kenya | In China, or at the port at a 15% penalty | The rule, with a costly fallback |
| South Africa | A product approval before importation | The rule |
| Turkey | At import, on a risk basis | The system's risk analysis |
| Morocco | In the dispatch country, or at the Moroccan border | Largely the importer |
Why inspecting in China is usually the right answer anyway
Having a choice is not the same as the options being equal. A product that fails inspection in China is a production problem: the goods have not shipped, the money for freight has not been spent, and the factory is standing next to the fault. The same failure found at a Moroccan border post is a problem with the goods already in Morocco, the freight already paid and the factory eight thousand miles away.
The asymmetry gets worse with the nature of the products on the border-control list. Tyres, brake pads, cement, ceramic tiles, wire rod and concrete reinforcement are heavy and low in value per tonne, so the freight is a large share of the landed cost and the cost of getting it wrong is correspondingly large. These are precisely the goods you least want to discover a problem with after shipping them.
So treat the Moroccan option as a fallback rather than a plan, in the same way the Kenyan destination inspection is a fallback. The right sequence is to inspect where the goods are made, which is the general argument our quality inspection guide makes and which Morocco's rules happen to price for you.
Which products, and which standards
Only products on the list of Moroccan standards of mandatory application need a certificate. The Ministry published arrêté n°2911-20 in the Bulletin officiel, making 25 updated versions of Moroccan standards mandatory from 17 March 2021 and 40 new Moroccan standards mandatory from 17 June 2021, with the lists set out in annexes 1 and 2 and published on the Ministry's website under market surveillance.
The border control itself commenced on 1 February 2021 and covers automotive spare parts, construction products, wooden panels, gas appliances, electrical products, textiles, footwear and baby diapers. The Ministry's earlier notice on the new system lists the border-controlled goods in more detail: tyres, batteries, brake pads, glass, filters and cables among auto parts; ceramic tiles, cement, waterproofing sheets, sanitary products, fittings and plastic tubes among construction materials; and wood panels, gas heating and water heating appliances, wire rod, concrete reinforcement, clothing articles, phone chargers, circuit breakers, blankets, carpets, upholstery fabrics and diapers.
The system itself came into force on 20 June 2020, after a transition period originally set to run from 1 February to 19 April 2020 and extended to 19 June because of the pandemic. During that period importers could exceptionally have goods inspected in Morocco on a sworn declaration, a déclaration sur l'honneur. That concession was tied to its moment, and this page does not suggest it is still available.
Because the lists are annexes that get amended, check the current version against your product rather than against this summary. The standard numbers are the operative thing, not the category names, and a product can sit inside a category without being on the list or the other way round.
The paperwork that has to be produced in China
Two Moroccan requirements are satisfied at the Chinese end and are easy to get wrong if nobody mentions them to the factory. The commercial or pro-forma invoice must be on the supplier's letterhead, in French, and must carry the commodity code and the valuation of the goods. A Chinese factory that has never shipped to a francophone market will not produce that by default, and an invoice in English is a document that has to be redone.
Separately, Morocco requires an import commitment authorised by the Foreign Exchange Office, alongside the customs declaration, and all imports require a licence representing the physical import. Those are the importer's side, in Morocco, but the invoice they are built on comes from the factory, so the details have to agree from the start.
This page quotes no Moroccan duty rate, because no Moroccan tariff source could be opened and checked. Morocco's customs administration and standards institute were both unreachable from here while this guide was written, so everything above comes from the Ministry of Industry and Trade's own published notices and a government trade guide. Get the rate from Moroccan customs or a Moroccan customs agent.
What we can do for a Moroccan buyer, and what we cannot
Given the choice Morocco offers, the useful work is at our end: establishing whether your product sits on a mandatory standard, arranging inspection in China before shipment so the border certificate is not needed, making sure the goods inspected are the goods that ship, and getting the invoice issued in French with the commodity code and valuation. Then the ordinary work of finding and vetting the factory, negotiating, sampling and loading.
On commercial terms, we can quote a price to your own destination port, so Casablanca or Tanger Med, and ex-works or a price to a Chinese port is there instead if your own freight forwarder is handling the sea leg. Door-to-door with duty and taxes included depends on the destination; ask, and we will tell you plainly which one applies.
What we do not do is obtain an import licence, deal with the Foreign Exchange Office, advise on Moroccan import law or act as your customs broker. Those are yours, in Morocco. Tell us the product and say the goods are going to Morocco in the first message, because whether it is on a mandatory standard decides what has to happen before shipping. The wider picture is in the guide to buying from China from anywhere, and the market with no arrival remedy at all is Nigeria.
Frequently asked questions
Does my product need a certificate of conformity for Morocco?
Only if it is covered by a Moroccan standard of mandatory application. The Ministry published arrêté n°2911-20, making 25 updated standards mandatory from 17 March 2021 and 40 new ones from 17 June 2021, with the lists in annexes 1 and 2 on the Ministry's market surveillance pages. Check the current annexes against your product, because they are amended.
Can the inspection happen in China rather than in Morocco?
Yes, and usually it should. The Ministry describes a mixed system where control happens at the border for some products and in the dispatch country for the rest, and a certificate is required from one of three authorised inspection bodies at the Moroccan border only where the goods were not inspected before shipment. Inspecting in China turns a border problem back into a production problem.
Which goods are checked at the Moroccan border?
Border control commenced on 1 February 2021 for automotive spare parts, construction products, wooden panels, gas appliances, electrical products, textiles, footwear and baby diapers. The Ministry's detailed list includes tyres, batteries, brake pads, glass, filters, cables, ceramic tiles, cement, waterproofing sheets, sanitary products, plastic tubes, wire rod, concrete reinforcement, phone chargers, circuit breakers, blankets, carpets and upholstery fabrics.
What does my Chinese supplier have to put on the invoice?
The commercial or pro-forma invoice must be on the supplier's letterhead, in French, carrying the commodity code and the valuation of the goods. A factory that has not shipped to a francophone market will not do this by default, so specify it before the documents are drawn up rather than after.