Importing a used car from the US to Morocco

Why a clean US title can hide a wreck

In the US, insurers and salvage yards report total losses to NMVTIS, the federal title database, and the state brands the title. The Department of Justice warns that a brand can be washed off when a car is retitled in a state that doesn’t check every earlier title. The FTC adds that storm-damaged cars are cleaned up and taken to other states for sale. The title an exporter shows you may be the newest one, not the whole record.

Many export cars were bought at Copart or IAAI. If yours was, the lot page recorded the damage, the title type and photos taken before any repair. Our auction report keeps that record after the sale.

The five-year limit

Article 96 of decree 2-10-421, which applies Morocco’s highway code, only allows a used imported car to be approved for the road if it is no more than five years old. Customs (the Administration des Douanes et Impôts Indirects, ADII) applies the same limit when it clears the car. Ask your customs agent (transitaire) how the age will be counted for your car before you buy. The ADII lists these exceptions, among others:

• Retired Moroccans living abroad with at least 10 years of residence abroad can bring in a passenger car under 10 years old with up to 9 seats, once in their lifetime.
• Moroccans abroad returning for good get the same one-time allowance for a car under 10 years old.
• Collector cars classified under article 81 of the highway code (law 52-05) are accepted beyond the age limit, once an approved federation has issued its classification certificate.

The ADII adds that its tax advantage for Moroccans abroad goes only to those aged 60 and over, on separate conditions. These rules change often, so read the current ADII guide for Moroccans abroad before you ship.

Duty under the US–Morocco free trade agreement

The free trade agreement has applied since 1 January 2006. ADII’s current list of US-origin products puts chapter 87 of the tariff, which covers cars, among the fully liberalized products, so a qualifying car pays no import duty. What counts is where the car was made, not where it was sold: a US-market car built in Japan, Germany or Mexico doesn’t become US-origin because it has a US title. Decode the VIN to see the plant country.

No certificate of origin is needed, but on request the importer must hand customs a signed declaration based on the exporter’s or producer’s documents, and the car must travel directly, with transit through other countries allowed only without any processing. Import VAT still applies when duty is zero; the US trade guide puts VAT on imports at 0 to 20%. Ask a transitaire for the full figure before you bid.

Ports: Tanger Med and Casablanca

Tanger Med’s port complex has a vehicle terminal for import, export and transshipment. Its 2024 traffic was mostly new cars leaving Moroccan factories; 27,410 vehicles were imported. In Casablanca, Marsa Maroc’s terminals handle vehicles alongside containers, with vertical storage for 5,000 cars. Your shipper will tell you which port its route serves.

Approval and the carte grise

A used imported car needs individual approval (homologation à titre isolé). NARSA, the national road safety agency, also names vehicles that were seriously crashed and repaired among those that need it, and the Centre national d’essais et d’homologation rejects a car whose technical features don’t meet the rules. The usual order is:

1. Pass a technical inspection at an approved control centre.
2. Have the car identified by the NARSA office where you live. With the identification certificate, ADII issues the clearance certificate. If you clear the car at the port of entry instead, ADII stamps that certificate with a one-month deadline to register.
3. File for the carte grise. For a used car NARSA asks for the original foreign registration document (or an attestation from the country of origin showing the first registration date and owner), a sale contract with the legalized signature of the seller named on it, the inspection report, and the identification certificate and approval report.
4. NARSA gives you a receipt valid 30 days, then the final carte grise.

Checklist before you pay

1. Decode the VIN with the VIN decoder: plant country for the free trade agreement, age for the five-year limit.
2. Run a CARFAX or AutoCheck report for brands from every state, total-loss and flood events, and the odometer trail.
3. Pull the auction record and look for water lines, deployed airbags and damage near the pillars. See the flood damage check.
4. Compare today’s title with the title type at auction. A salvage car now on a clean title needs an explanation.
5. Ask your transitaire for duty, VAT and fees, and how it handles an auction title.

What our reports cover

CARFAX and AutoCheck cover cars sold in the US and Canada: title brands, total-loss and auction events, and recorded mileage. The auction report shows a Copart or IAAI lot as it was sold, with photos, recorded damage, and title and odometer at sale. We don’t handle shipping, customs or NARSA paperwork.