## Expanding Trade Across The Maghreb

_IMF Blog, April 23, 2019_

## Source details

**Canonical URL:** [Expanding Trade Across The Maghreb](https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2019/04/23/blog-expanding-trade-across-the-maghreb)

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- [Markdown version](/en/blogs/articles/2019/04/23/blog-expanding-trade-across-the-maghreb/index.md)
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## Bibliographic details
- Authors: Ramzy Al Amine, JeanFranois Dauphin, Alexei Kireyev
- Published: April 23, 2019

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### Background
- In 1989, the five Maghreb countries—Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia—established the Arab Maghreb Union to promote cooperation and economic integration.
- Thirty years later, there is still a largely untapped potential for regional trade among Maghreb countries.
- The issue is highlighted as important because all Maghreb countries need to create jobs for their young and growing populations.

### Current trade patterns
- Existing intra-Maghreb trade is limited and concentrated in a few goods:
  - Fuels and mineral oils exported from Algeria to Tunisia and Morocco.
  - Vegetable oils, machinery, iron and steel exported by Tunisia to Algeria and Libya.
  - Iron, steel, apparel and clothing, vehicles and electric equipment exported by Morocco to Algeria, Tunisia, and Mauritania.

### Opportunities for expanded trade
- The authors’ calculations identify many opportunities for further trade, including:
  - Transport services, food, metals and chemicals from Morocco to Tunisia.
  - Minerals from Morocco to Algeria.
  - Different types of fuels traded in reverse between countries.
  - Tunisia exporting vegetables to Morocco and minerals to Algeria.

### Potential benefits and projections
- Greater openness to intra-regional trade in goods and services would:
  - Create a large market attractive to investors.
  - Help build regional value-chains and link them to global value-chains.
  - Increase resilience to economic shocks.
  - Provide opportunities for nearly 100 million people.
- The IMF paper estimates that growth in Maghreb countries could increase by one percentage point in the long term as a result of deeper economic integration.

### Pathways to integration and policy considerations
- Participants at the IMF-World Bank 2019 Spring Meetings discussed approaches to achieve deeper integration:
  - Integration could be achieved gradually by weaving together links in sectors and among countries as conditions allow.
  - Times of economic crisis or political transition may provide opportunities for faster integration.
  - New technologies were seen as potentially powerful accelerators of economic integration, since technology knows no borders.

*Expanding Trade Across The Maghreb — Ramzy Al Amine, Jean-François Dauphin, Alexei Kireyev, April 23, 2019.*

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## References

- [https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/MCD-Maghreb-Animation-Chart-of-the-Week.gif](https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/MCD-Maghreb-Animation-Chart-of-the-Week.gif)
- [recently published paper](https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/Departmental-Papers-Policy-Papers/Issues/2019/02/08/Economic-Integration-in-the-Maghreb-An-Untapped-Source-of-Growth-46273)
- [participants discussed the potential benefits from deeper economic integration](https://www.imf.org/external/mmedia/view.aspx?vid=6027214519001)
- [Economic Growth and Fairness in the Middle East and North Africa](https://blogs.imf.org/2018/01/18/economic-growth-and-fairness-in-the-middle-east-and-north-africa/)

_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2019/04/23/blog-expanding-trade-across-the-maghreb_