Mauritania is part of the Arab Maghreb Union (Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia). In 2017, Mauritania and the ECOWAS inked an Association Agreement to allow unfettered trade in the region. Mauritania has been a WTO member since May 31, 1995, however, it is now working with the WTO to establish full compliance with its commitments.
Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union – Everything But Arms (EBA)
EPAs in Africa are helping to implement the Africa-Europe Alliance for Sustainable Investment and Jobs, which was launched in September 2018. They are crucial components of the EU’s Africa Comprehensive Strategy. The strategy’s economic pillar identifies trade, as well as regional and continental economic integration, as key aspects in promoting Africa’s long-term growth. Africa is of significant relevance to the EU’s trade policy, according to the February 2021 Trade Policy Review Communication.
The overarching goal of EPAs is to help ACP nations achieve sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction through trade.
The following aspects of current EPAs, in addition to access to EU markets, are included:
- EPAs are permanent partnerships that promote a gradual move away from aid and toward trade and investment as engines of growth, jobs, and poverty reduction. Both EU and ACP countries have rights and obligations under them.
- Free access to the EU market: EPAs provide free access to the EU market for all products, with zero tariffs and unrestricted quantities (duties and quotas-free) (except for arms).
- Flexible rules of origin: EPAs also have flexible conditions (rules of origin) under which exporters in EPA countries can more readily get the inputs they require to create their end products from outside the EU without losing their free trade access.
- Better access to the markets of EPA nations for EU goods: through partial liberalization with protracted transition periods and safeguard measures to activate if spikes in EU product imports disrupt local markets.
EPAs assist ACP nations in developing new sectors and diversifying their economies by moving their reliance on commodities to higher-value products and services.
Arab Maghreb Union
The Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) is a political union and trade agreement aimed at achieving economic and future political unity among Arab countries, especially in North Africa’s Maghreb region. Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia are among its members. Due to severe economic and political conflicts between Morocco and Algeria over, among other things, the subject of Western Sahara, the Union has been unable to make tangible progress toward its objectives. Since 3 July 2008, there have been no high-level meetings, and critics believe the Union is mainly dormant.
The goal, according to the Constitutive Act, is to ensure cooperation “with similar regional institutions… to participate in the enrichment of the international conversation… to strengthen the independence of the member states and… to defend… their assets.” The region’s strategic importance is predicated on the fact that it has huge phosphate, oil, and gas reserves and serves as a transportation hub for southern Europe. As a result, the Union’s success would be economically significant.
Continental Free trade Agreement CFTA
Their objectives are to:
- Establish a single continental market for products and services, with free movement of people and capital, paving the way for the Continental Customs Union and the African Customs Union to be established faster.
- Improve the harmonization and coordination of trade liberalization and facilitation regimes and tools across RECs and Africa in general to increase intra-African trade.
- Address the issues of multiple and overlapping memberships while also speeding up regional and continental integration.
- Increase industry and firm competitiveness by taking advantage of prospects for scale production, continental market access, and better resource reallocation.
