Challenges Facing Intra-Regional Trade among North African Countries

Abstract

The high rate of unemployment and the slow progress of economic growth in most North African countries have spotlighted the importance of inter-regional trade among them as an alternative solution to achieve inclusive growth in the long run. This paper investigates challenges facing intra-regional trade for the North African Arab countries, namely: Mauritania, Sudan, Egypt, Morocco, Libya, and Algeria. Beside that, the study attempt to identify the possible trade linkages and the elements of succession to boom inter-regional business among these countries. This study lays out the options that policymakers can adopt to overcome these challenges. The results reveal that in spite of the existent of the linkages between these countries that might lead to the successful inter-regional trade among them, there are more challenges, which have hindered its contribution based on the highly requested inclusive economic growth. The results of this study show a strong policy implication for the policy makers in these countries that might support the facilitation and the promotion of interregional trade among them.