ABSTRACT
The 1990s in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has have been characterized by two important – but incomplete – transformations of the region’s economies. 1 The first is the increasing extent to which the MENA region had begun to integrate itself into the world economy. Trade policy reforms in virtually all countries have removed quantitative import restrictions and reduced and rationalized tariffs. Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia have signed trade integration agreements with the European Union (EU). Egypt is in the last stages of concluding a similar agreement, and Algeria, Lebanon and Syria are at earlier stages of negotiations. Yet, despite these efforts, integration of the MENA countries into the global economy has proceeded rather slowly (World Bank 1997b). The rate of growth of trade – measured as the ratio of exports plus imports to gross domestic product – has lagged other regions of the developing world. Intra-regional trade has stagnated, and perhaps most worrisome, non-traditional exports have failed to expand rapidly.
