Competitiveness Between China And The European Union In Terms Of Trade With The Maghreb Region:a Comparative Study

There is a consensus on the fact that trade policies of leading economies have a strong impact on the world economy and serve as a catalyst of new trade patterns.While economists will continue to debate whether multilateral trade agreements or regionalism constitute the most effective strategy,the financial crisis makes it clear to major economic powerhouses like the European Union(EU)and China that markets in North Africa represent the best opportunity for a sustainable recovery.In light of high-profile trade deals by China in North Africa,the EU has become aware of China's growing presence.European policymakers increasingly fear that China's policy could affect their interests with regard to energy,natural resources and trade,thus,the EU has started to redefine its foreign policy and reach out to new strategic partners to remain a relevant international player.Since few studies has been specifically devoted to these issues,this paper is intended to fill the lack of literature for three selected Maghreb countries:Morocco,Tunisia and Algeria due to their French colonial history and dependency.In order to make a thorough assessment of economic integration of the EU and China in North Africa.My thesis deals with the following key issues:-How China is competing with European Union countries for Maghreb markets,and to what extent this competition might promote new partnerships?-Is the development of the Maghreb likely to occur in cooperation with China more than it has been with the European Union countries?Therefore,three methodologies were used in this paper:the Revealed Comparative Advantage analysis,which seeks to capture the products where China and the EU present a Comparative advantage at world's level;the Constant Market Share analysis,which pretends to verify if the Competitiveness explain the export growth to the Maghreb market;and the analysis based on the combination of the Trade Complementarity Index with the Geographical Orientation Index,which permits to identity the products where there is room,for China and the EU,to expand their exports to the Maghreb markets,under certain circumstances.The results of this paper show that China has a comparative advantage in trade in manufacturing,automobile industry,machinery,electronics and telecommunications industry while the EU has a comparative advantage in the fuel and mining products,textiles,clothing,food,electrical and mechanical,transportation materials and chemical products.Secondly,the paper uses the method of cluster analysis to measure the global trade competitiveness of China and EU countries from the perspective of international market values.This paper aims to examine the Competitiveness of China and the European Union in the Maghreb based on the international trade values.It firstly reflects about the ambiguous definition of Competitiveness as well as the diversity of methods that exist to measure this concept.Subsequently,it seeks to analyze the exports growth and the domains that each of the competing countries is dominant in the Maghreb market.The results show that the most competitive countries in China and the EU are Sweden,the Netherlands,China,France,the UK and Germany.These countries are characterized by a significant increase in the number of exports and foreign direct investment.Due to the large export of goods and services,China has entered a very competitive national cluster.Thirdly,we use the trade complement index and geo-oriented index to analyze the trade competitiveness of China and the EU in the Maghreb countries,the paper points out that China's professionalism in the machinery and electronic equipment sector has export competitiveness and potential export competitiveness.The EU has export competitiveness and potential export competitiveness in agriculture,vehicle motor,ore and metal products.The empirical analysis suggests that China's and the EU's exports are competitive in products identified by the three methodologies,having in many of them the capacity to increase their exports to the Maghreb market.However,there still persist high levels of trade protection applied by the Maghreb,which can explain why China's and the EU's exports have not yet take advantage of their full potential.Investigation into this topic requires a thorough examination of many different sources.Information is collected by examining books,articles,and other scholarly publications.In the quest for cooperation and dialogue between the EU and China in the Maghreb,the focus should be on seeking common ground and developing a pragmatic approach to overcome the threat seen from Europe over Chinese activities in the region..A point made is that the external interests from both actors are not fundamentally different from each other.Hence China's presence in the region is in fact more of the same.Nonetheless,China creates new options and alternatives for local agencies engagement with foreign partners.