Fatiha Coulombe, president of PHARE Associates LLC.

Fatiha Coulombe doesn’t know any other native Moroccans living in LaGrange, and she said the Moroccan government has no official representation in Georgia. 

In fact, Ms. Coulombe jokingly hinted to GlobalAtlanta in a recent interview that her knowledge of Moroccan enterprises in the state—like many Georgians—stops at the popular restaurant in Atlanta, Imperial Fez.

But through her company, PHARE Associates LLC, Ms. Coulombe is trying to up the interaction between Georgia and her native country, from which she came to the United States in the mid-1980s. 

A main obstacle is that awareness about Morocco suffers from confusion about how to geographically classify the nation.

“When they talk Africa they exclude (Morocco). It’s always sub-Saharan Africa,” she said, noting the country’s position on the northwest corner of the African continent.  “And when they talk about the Middle East, Morocco gets left out.”

With sponsorship by the U.S. Commercial Service in Casablanca, Morocco, and a guarantee of ready assistance from the Moroccan Embassy in Washington, Ms. Coulombe initiated and is now organizing a four-day trade mission to the cities of Casablanca, Rabat and Tangier March 4-7.

Ms. Coulombe, who advocates free trade as a means to achieve understanding among nations, said that trade has increased drastically since the implementation of a free trade agreement in 2006. 

Specifically, total bilateral trade between the U.S. and Morocco grew 44 percent from about $970 million in 2005 to about $1.4 billion in 2006.  Through October 2007, U.S. foreign trade statistics show the year’s total trade surpassing $1.5 billion, with the U.S. posting a more than $500 million surplus.

With more than 120 U.S.-based large multinationals reaping most of the agreement’s benefits thus far, Ms. Coulombe said there is ample room and incentive for other American businesses to kickstart international operations in Morocco.

“The small and medium-sized American companies are not pushing hard enough going overseas and selling,” Ms. Coulombe said. “It’s not easy.  It does take work, it does take time, but the payoffs are tremendous.”

Although Morocco has traditionally engaged in more trade with Europe due to factors of proximity and cultural similarity, the weak U.S. dollar against the euro and the high quality of American-made goods give U.S. companies a competitive advantage now, she added. 

Ms. Coulombe said that the Commercial Service has planned to focus the trip’s meetings on sectors its research has deemed promising for American companies.

The Moroccan government has committed to funding worth more than $10 billion over the next three years, with developments in such sectors as water, electricity, highways, railways, airports and industrial zones, according to figures released by Mourad Layachi, a trade counselor at the Moroccan Embassy.

The tentative itinerary for the trade mission includes one-on-one meetings with government officials and prospective buyers and partners as well as a visit to the Tangier Med Port, a $2 billion port on the Strait of Gibraltar between Morocco and Spain.

The port began operating in August and is eventually expected to create 140,000 jobs on its way helping Morocco become a significant transshipment destination in the Mediterranean, according to the Web site of the Tangier Free Zone, a development that includes the port.  Delegates will tour the port and meet with officials there.

Ms. Coulombe, whose background in aerospace engineering, established PHARE to help foreign companies transition into the U.S. market. 

Her clients have mostly been French-speaking representatives from aerospace companies in the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec that needed help bringing trade missions to Georgia or translating manuals and other literature.

She is now capitalizing on her Moroccan background and fluency in Arabic, English and French by getting involved in a variety of activities throughout the Middle East.

Ms. Coulombe said she has recruited five likely candidates for the mission, but she would like to see at least 12 companies represented on the trip.

She urged companies with tourism interests to take advantage of Moroccan King Mohammed VI’s ambitious plan to bring 10 million tourists to the country by 2010.

Already, an influx of European tourists has boosted tourism’s share of Morocco’s gross domestic product to 11 percent.  Resorts are under development and historic homes are being remodeled into inns to allow more tourists to experience the rich culture and topographic diversity of Morocco, she said.

“In one day in Morocco you can ski in the Atlas Mountains in the morning and in the afternoon you can go to the Atlantic beaches or the Mediterranean Sea,” Ms. Coulombe said.  

The mission will cost $2,900 excluding airfare, lodging and food.  Companies that would like to send more than one delegate can pay a fee of $450 per extra person, plus lodging and airfare.  Also, companies that have no need for one-on-one meetings can pay a reduced fee of $1,800.

Interested parties should contact Ms. Coulombe to sign up by Jan. 25.