Brussels, 11/02/2013 (Agence Europe) - Although Europe conducts 70% of its trade internally, the Maghreb does not have more than 2-3% of its trade between countries of its sub-region, deplores a report by the UN Economic Commission for North Africa, taking stock after the period of Arab revolutions. The European Commission had also noted this fact after the visit to Brussels by the secretary general of the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania), “one of the least integrated regions of the world”.
The report states that, at the time of the major challenge of setting up a Euro-Mediterranean free trade area for the Maghreb economies, the AMU project is no longer what it used to be, i.e. an ideal, but rather an imperative need to ensure survival. Situated between the leading economic global power - the eurozone - and the most coveted economic zone at the present time - sub-Saharan Africa - the Maghreb has a role to play, the report states.
One of the levers for strengthening integration could be found in banking activity, a factor that closes the gap between national economic policies. Finance, the report states, is a determining factor, which must be harmonised if one is to take the long-desired integration of the Maghreb forward. It adds that, in addition, the zone can hold its own compared to its partners of the northern rim as it can boast of 93 banks, including 104 financial establishments, and 1,300 sales points with an average of 400 new banking agencies annually.
However, the authors of the report say, the Maghreb banking system remains focused on international trade. The $30 billion spent each year for importing cereals when the region is not lacking in fertile land is a perfect example of this. They point out that logistical constraints do not facilitate trade either and that it would take 23-40 days to link the port of Tangiers Med with that of Oran, longer than to link Singapore with Shanghai.
The report also points to the need to harmonise fiscal and investment codes and to reform trade systems between the five member nations. The creation of a “Banque maghrégine pour l'investissement et le commerce” (BMICE), the project of which was presented to the European Commission, provides ground for optimism. Thus, it would be possible to give concrete substance to the AMU dream, if the Maghreb managed to come to calm political dialogue not dominated by the security syndrome and if three major challenges were addressed: immigration, fundamentalism and drugs. The report cited by the Algerian daily, el-Watan, concludes that, in order to eliminate these three risks, relations must evolve towards a sound partnership geared to development, democracy and integration of the Maghreb. (FB/transl.jl)