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Local Area Info: Arab Maghreb Union

The Arab Maghreb Union (AMU); Arabic: ????? ?????? ??????? Itti??d al-Maghrib al-‘Arab?) is a trade agreement aiming for economic and future political unity among Arab countries of the Maghreb in North Africa. Its members are the nations of Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia. The Union has been unable to achieve tangible progress on its goals due to deep economic and political disagreements between Morocco and Algeria regarding, among others, the issue of Western Sahara. No high level meetings have taken place since 3 July 2008 and commentators regard the Union as largely dormant.

The idea for an economic union of the Maghreb began with the independence of Tunisia and Morocco in 1956. It was not until thirty years later, though, that five Maghreb states—Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia—met for the first Maghreb summit in 1988. The Union was established on 17 February 1989 when the treaty was signed by the member states in Marrakech. According to the Constitutive Act, its aim is to guarantee cooperation "with similar regional institutions... [to] take part in the enrichment of the international dialogue... [to] reinforce the independence of the member states and... [to] safeguard... their assets." Strategic relevance of the region is based on the fact that, collectively, it boasts large phosphate, oil, and gas reserves, and it is a transit centre to southern Europe. The success of the Union would, therefore be economically important.

The economy of the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) combines the economies of 5 member states. All Country are predominantly Muslim states. Those 5 AMU countries have a combined GDP (at Purchasing power parity; PPP) of US$1,276,100 billion. The richest country on the basis of GDP per capita at PPP is Algeria. On basis of per capita GDP (nominal), Libya is richest country with incomes exceeding US$7.803 per capita.