RABAT, June 17 (Xinhua) -- Trade volume between Morocco and the United States totaled 2.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2007, up from 1.4 billion dollars a year earlier, due to the entry into force of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in 2006, a Moroccan official said Tuesday.

    The rise of trade exchanges was achieved thanks to a significant 25 percent surge of Moroccan exports to the U.S. in 2007, state MAP news agency on Tuesday quoted Foreign Trade Minister Abdellatif Maazouz as saying.

    Maazouz deemed it indispensable to create a direct maritime line between the port of Tangier, northern Morocco, and the east coast of the U.S., in order to give a new impetus to bilateral trade, the report said.

    Morocco has signed several FTAs with a number of Arab countries, the European Union, and Turkey, but its agreement with the U.S. is the most comprehensive one as it encompasses all fields, including agriculture, which represents an important pillar of the north African kingdom economy, it said.

    Deputy Chief of Mission in the U.S. embassy in Rabat Robert Jackson hailed the upward course of bilateral trade exchanges, adding that the FTA has helped attract more American businesses and investors to Morocco.

    These, he said, are mostly operating in the fields of tourism, catering franchises, the automobile industry, aeronautics and mining.