Thanks to its critical minerals and manufacturing growth, Morocco has become crucial to China, the European Union and the United States, says the Washington-based Heritage Foundation. The North African Kingdom controls 70% of the world’s phosphate reserves that are essential to produce fertilizers and lithium phosphate battery chemistries, underlines a research published by the American think-tank. Furthermore, Morocco has become a major destination for Chinese activity associated with the electric car and battery industries, says the Heritage Foundation analysis, citing in this regard the Tangier tech hub which has received $ 10 billion in Chinese investment to boost EV battery production. Because of Morocco’s strategic position, huge natural resource reserves, and free-trade agreements with the U.S, and EU, China has increasingly looked upon the country’s free-trade zones as the solution to Western tariffs, but not every Chinese investment in the country is tariff circumnavigation. The Heritage Foundation’s 2025 Index of Economic Freedom gives Morocco a score of 60.3 (placing it in the “moderately free” category) and making Morocco’s free-trade zone a model for African industrialization.

Source: The North Africa Journal March 09, 2026 20:35 UTC