ABSTRACT
In mid-1995, Tunisia made the strategic choice of becoming the first country in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region to sign a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU). In 1996, the authorities launched a vast industrial restructuring programme (programme de mise-à-niveau) aimed at helping Tunisian firms to bridge the gap between their current performance and the benchmark performance of their trading partners by upgrading productive capacity and human capital. The programme aimed at restructuring 2000 enterprises out of 4000 potential candidates by the end of 2001.
