Morocco caps used imports at five years, requires left-hand drive and Euro 6, and charges about 17.5% duty plus 20% VAT on CIF. Tanger Med's vehicle terminals moved 600,872 vehicles in 2024 against a capacity of one million — but only 27,410 of those were imports. Terminal space is not what constrains importers here; the certificate of conformity and the EX-A export declaration are. Here is what the route actually involves.
Morocco sits at the gateway between Europe, the Mediterranean and West Africa, and it is the one African market where the logistics infrastructure is built for vehicle trade at scale rather than adapted to it. Tanger Med's two vehicle terminals handled 600,872 vehicles in 2024 against a nominal annual capacity of one million. That headline number needs reading carefully: 368,843 of those vehicles were Renault and SOMACA cars built in Casablanca and shipped out, 170,519 came from the Stellantis plant at Kenitra, 34,100 were transshipped, and 27,410 were imported. The terminals are sized for Morocco's own new-car exports — which is precisely why there is room for imported stock.
What makes Morocco different from other African markets is not the port — it is that the compliance gate sits in Europe, not in Africa. Euro 6 has applied since 2023, the age cap is five years from first registration, and a certificate of conformity is required before the vehicle even ships. Get those three right at the sourcing stage and the shipment is routine; get them wrong and the vehicle cannot be registered in the destination market at all.
This page covers the route and the document set, with the rule facts taken from the same source as our Morocco country guide.
Two documents carry most of the weight: a certificate of conformity (COC) and an EX-A export declaration issued by the country of origin, both required before shipment. On top of that, used vehicles must be no more than five years from first registration, left-hand drive only — right-hand drive is prohibited — and Euro 6 emissions have applied since 2023. Customs and indirect taxes clearance runs through ADII. The landed cost is customs duty commonly around 17.5% of CIF (the band runs 10–30%), plus 20% VAT and a 0.25% parafiscal tax. Casablanca is the main port for container cargo; Tanger Med is the automotive gateway, with two vehicle terminals that handled 600,872 vehicles in 2024 against a nominal one-million-a-year capacity — of which 27,410 were imports.
| Age limit | Used vehicles must be no more than 5 years from first registration. Left-hand drive only; right-hand drive is prohibited. Euro 6 emissions required since 2023. |
|---|---|
| Steering | Left-hand drive only (right-hand drive prohibited). |
| Import duty & taxes | Customs duty commonly 10–30% (often about 17.5%) on CIF, plus 20% VAT and a 0.25% parafiscal (damage) tax. A certificate of conformity (COC) and an EX-A export declaration from the country of origin are required. |
| Main ports / entry | Casablanca is the main port; Tanger Med handles large container volumes and is a growing automotive gateway. |
| Authority & certification | Administration of Customs and Indirect Taxes (ADII) clears goods; a certificate of conformity and an EX-A export declaration are required before shipment. |
| Required documents | EX-A export declaration, certificate of conformity (COC), bill of lading, commercial invoice, original registration, passport, and proof of residence. Documents must match the VIN. |
| How we support you | We export Morocco-bound stock inside the 5-year window with Euro 6 emissions, and prepare the EX-A export declaration and the certificate of conformity (CoC) so the ADII file is complete before Casablanca or Tanger Med discharge. |
| Key watch-outs | The 5-year limit is counted from first registration and Euro 6 has been mandatory since 2023, so older stock and lower-emission cars are excluded; right-hand drive is prohibited outright, and the EX-A export declaration and COC have to be in place before shipment. |
Casablanca is Morocco's main port and handles the container traffic, and containerised used cars bound for Morocco move through it. Tanger Med is the automotive side of the country: its two vehicle terminals have a nominal combined capacity of one million vehicles a year, with storage for roughly 6,000 units at the manufacturer terminal and 3,000 at the multi-user terminal, and the car carrier terminal is connected to 35 ports with 12 regular services running weekly. A multi-level parking lot adding 2,400 storage spaces is being built to support further export growth.
The practical difference is what happens to the vehicle after it lands. Casablanca is a general cargo port with the container flow, the inland road network and the clearance capacity of a national gateway. Tanger Med is built for vehicles, with rail connections running inland from the terminals and a passenger and Ro-Ro port within the complex that handles the border inspection areas on entry to Morocco. For containerised used cars the route is normally Casablanca; for high volumes and for buyers who want the vehicle handled in a dedicated automotive facility, Tanger Med is the alternative that more exporters should be pricing.
Tanger Med operates as its own port complex under a dedicated agency, and the operational data above — terminal capacities, the 2024 vehicle count, the weekly service network — is published by the port itself rather than estimated. Casablanca sits under Morocco's national ports agency, so the two sets of figures are not reported on the same basis.
The 5-year age cap, computed from first registration, sets which vehicles are eligible at all. It is a sourcing filter, not a customs formality, so it belongs at the selection stage — a car outside the window cannot be fixed by any document.
Left-hand drive only is the second rule, and right-hand drive is prohibited outright rather than penalised. That determines which export stock is usable and which has to be excluded before a quote is issued.
Euro 6 since 2023 is the third. It applies to the vehicles being imported, and it is the requirement that most often surprises importers who are used to the older Euro 5 baseline still accepted in some neighbouring markets.
On the money side, customs duty is commonly around 17.5% of CIF within a 10–30% band, with 20% VAT and a 0.25% parafiscal (damage) tax on top. A certificate of conformity and an EX-A export declaration from the country of origin are required, and clearance is handled by ADII. The landed cost is therefore not just the duty percentage — it is the duty percentage applied to a CIF figure that already includes the freight, and then VAT applied on top of that.
Morocco's list is specific: the EX-A export declaration, the certificate of conformity (COC), the bill of lading, the commercial invoice, the original registration document, a passport and proof of residence — with every reference matching the VIN. That last point is where most delays originate, because a mismatch between the registration document and the invoice does not get corrected at the port; it gets parked.
Both the COC and the EX-A have to be in hand before shipment, not after arrival. That single requirement explains most of the sequencing: sourcing, certification and export declaration run in parallel, but all three have to converge before the vessel loads. It also means the timeline for a Morocco-bound batch includes certification lead time, which is not visible in the freight booking and is easy to forget when a buyer is comparing quotations on price alone.
Documents are filed with ADII, and the practical check before any cargo is committed is that the VIN, the model, the year and the declared value match across every document in the set.
We select Morocco-bound stock against the rules that actually decide eligibility — inside the five-year window from first registration, left-hand drive, Euro 6 — before anything is quoted, so the vehicle list a buyer sees is a list they can legally import.
The COC and EX-A are handled alongside the vehicle selection rather than afterwards, and every document reference is checked against the VIN of the unit being shipped. Where a batch sits near the age boundary, we flag it up front rather than after the container is sealed.
Figures indicative. Morocco caps used imports at 5 years, requires left-hand drive and Euro 6, and prohibits right-hand drive; duty about 17.5% plus 20% VAT, with a COC and EX-A export declaration. Confirm current rates with ADII. Sources: Moroccan Customs (douane.gov.ma); General Directorate of Taxes (tgrp.gov.ma); Moroccan Institute for Standardization (anor.ma). Last reviewed 2026-10.
Age limits, emission standards, duty rates and document requirements are set by the Moroccan authorities and change without notice. The figures on this page are indicative and drawn from the same source as our Morocco country guide; confirm the current rules with ADII before shipment.
Send the destination, the model and model year, and the quantity. We confirm each unit is inside the five-year window, left-hand drive and Euro 6, arrange the certificate of conformity and the EX-A export declaration for the country of origin, and check every document reference against the VIN before shipment.
