Middle East Information Resource
Political Entities - Arab Maghreb Union
The Arab Maghreb Union (ittihad al-maghreb al-arabi) was formed as an instrument of economic cooperation in 1989 by Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya and Mauritania. The creation of the AMU represented an improvement of relations amongst the nations of the Maghreb, especially between Tunisia and Libya. In May 1988 Tunisia and Libya agreed to establish a social and economic union. This led to several joint Tunisian-Libyan projects, increased Libyan tourism to Tunisia, and more employment for Tunisians in Libya.
President Ben Ali of Tunisia, in particular, supported further efforts to establish a strong regional economic organization. It was hoped that economic unity amongst the Maghreb states would give them a more favorable bargaining position with Europe, at a time when the European Union was forming. In June 1988, at the Arab summit conference in Algiers, the heads of the Maghreb states met to discuss economic union. The results of the conference were the creation if the Arab Maghreb Union in February 1989. The new union, in addition to its economic goals, sought to enhancethe sense of common regional identity. In the January 1990 meeting of the AMU Foreign Ministers, the Tunisian delegate suggested a series of measures that would create a unified energy market for the Maghreb, allowing free trade in electricity, petroleum and natural gas. In March 1990, a regional television service for the entire Maghreb was founded in Tunis. In July of that year, at a summit conference of the members` heads of state, a customs union was adopted as an intermediate objective.
However, the AMU never became a truly effective regional organization. There was political friction betwen members, and they did not share compelling common economic interest. The idea of attaining economic integration through intra-regional trade failed due to the disruptions in oil production in the oil-exportering countries Libya and Algeria, and supply to Morocco, Tunisia and Mauritania. Most of the trade of the Maghreb states, both inport and export, is with customers inn economically advanced countries outside the region. In addition to these economic problems, the AMU also suffered from structural weakness emanating from different ideologies amongst them members. At times of conflict such as the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the Gulf War, the Madrid Peace Conference, the Algerian Civil War, and the Western Sahara Conflict, the AMU has suffered.