Maghrebi Integration and the Automobile Industry: Past Failures and New Perspectives

The purpose of this chapter is to show that the failure of regional integration in the countries of the North of Africa (henceforth called the ‘Maghreb’) does not constitute an insurmountable obstacle to the development of a Maghrebi automobile industry with a foothold in the Euro-Mediterranean zone. 1989 saw the creation of the Maghrebi Arab Union (MAU), a grouping of nations whose objective was to establish a free trade zone between Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia. The aim was to create a structure with an outlook similar to an economic and monetary union. At the time of writing this integration process has ground to a halt and its benefits have been severely curtailed. The MAU has not spawned any new opportunities, nor has it made any real contribution to the Maghrebi countries’ industrial development. Although a few bilateral co-operation agreements have constituted tentative initial steps towards a regional division of labour, the absence of an integrated and stimulated institutional framework (and the low level of intra-regional trade) attests to the MAU’s failure.