British companies and politicians descended on Morocco this week to discuss business partnerships, trade ties and the Western Sahara dispute.
Around 30 UK companies are attending the 2023 Salon International de l'Agriculture au Maroc — an agriculture expo in the historic city of Meknes in the north of the country — where they expect to strike deals with Moroccan agribusinesses.
In recent years, trade ties between the two countries have been growing. A trade deal in 2019 was one of the first since the UK voted to leave the European Union in June 2016. Since then, the countries have been signing a spate of partnerships across multiple sectors, including education, transport and renewable energy.
Among the most significant is the Xlinks project, a 3,800-km undersea cable that will connect Morocco’s renewable energy-rich region of Guelmim Oued Noun with Britain, delivering up to 3.6 gigawatts of solar and wind energy for an average of 20+ hours a day. The cable will also pass Spain, Portugal and France. Once complete, the project is predicted to provide up to 8% of the UK’s electricity demand with renewable energy.
