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Abstract
Textile and clothing industries are key sectors in the economy of Maghreb countries and may experience major turnovers further to the Multifiber Agreement (MFA) phasing out that started on 1 January 2005. The countries of the region have made substantive efforts in anticipation of these turnovers. They have defined response strategies and are also implementing national industrial and trade policies to accompany this MFA phasing out. The object of this paper is to assess theses response strategies. The model used in this paper is a simplified version of the GTAP model (version 6.0). Our results show that the implementation of the free trade agreement (FTA) with Turkey and United States of America would reduce the negative effect of the removal of quotas in only a modest way. In contrast, a « pan-euroMediterranean » FTA would have a more positive effect. This scenario should entail an improvement of the GDP of all the countries of the region and could also be very favourable to the European Union, particularly in terms of welfare.