Chapter 11

Chapter 11
Industrial Clusters: Ambassadors for

Regional Development: Case Study of
Agadir Agreementp
Sameh Hammad
Abstract
Building industrial clusters is getting much more political attention and
strategic orientation in all developing countries. This study started by
revising the conceptual and theoretical frameworks for industrial clusters,
followed by some insights and contributions about empirical bases for
clusters’ dynamics and processes. The study focused on the case of Agadir
Agreement between four Arab countries (Egypt, Jordon, Morocco, and
Tunisia), which was initiated after the Euro-Mediterranean partnerships,
and the rationale of the agreement was based on the concept of cumulative
value-added origin. The study based its methodology on analyzing the
international and bilateral trade flows of six industrial goods from the
automotive sector among the four countries and with the EU countries to
detect the degree of industrial collaboration and the achieved success of each
country in this sector. The study indicated that the four countries used the
concept of industrial clusters for economic development, but the results of
the analysis showed that till now Agadir Agreement only achieved a shallow
integration, while failed to deeply integrate as one big collaborative indus-
trial cluster.
Keywords: Industrial clusters; regional integration; global value chains; cross

cluster collaboration; Euro-Mediterranean agreement; Agadir Agreement;
automotive industries
p
A practitioner/white paper
Industry Clusters and Innovation in the Arab World, 309–351

Copyright © 2023 Sameh Hammad
Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited
doi:10.1108/978-1-80262-871-520231014
310 Sameh Hammad
Introduction
Developing industrial clusters is one of the main instrument for sustainable regional
development and international cooperation, and the emerged concept of global value
chains (GVCs) created a new horizon of opportunities for cooperation and com-
plementing industrial clusters. The objective of this study is to contribute to testing the
relative association between industrial clusters and regional economic development,
and it examines the development of industrial clusters in selected countries in the Arab
world as a tool for regional economic development, integration among countries to
benefit from trade agreements, and implant specific industries inside the region as a
well-known industrial hub and a worldwide branded cluster. The study starts by
revising the conceptual and theoretical frameworks for the concept of industrial clus-
ters, the literature in this area is very rich, and it identified some of the remarkable
milestones in the literature of industrial clusters. Then, the study focused on analyzing
and contributing to the literature of industrial clusters through spotlighting some
insights about empirical bases for clusters’ dynamics and processes, starting from the
phase of establishing the industrial clusters and the paradox of GVCs and the
geographical agglomeration, then through the phase of operationalizing the industrial
clusters and their factors of competitiveness and sustainability, and finally the phase of
internationalization and cross-border industrial clusters through the process of tech-
nology development (Technology TAPE) between developed and emerging industrial
clusters.
Furtherly, the study used the case of Agadir Agreement between the four Arab
countries (Egypt, Jordon, Morocco, and Tunisia), which has been initiated from the
Euro-Mediterranean partnerships. The rationale of the agreement is based on the
concept of cumulative value-added origin, so traded goods among countries of the
agreement will be considered as local components. The agreement supposed to
encourage collaboration between the industrial clusters in the four countries to
source the most competitive components among them that will eventually transform
them to a larger regional industrial cluster based on modern export-driven econo-
mies. Particularly, for policy-driven industrial clusters that rely on very sophisticated
supply chains such as automotive industries, the study is mandated to examine the
impact of Agadir Agreement on the development of the automotive industries in the
four countries of Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia.
The methodology of the study is based on the analysis of the international and
bilateral trade flows of six industrial goods from the automotive sector among the
four countries and with the EU countries to detect the degree of industrial collabo-
ration and the achieved success of each country in this industrial sector, without
omission of the impact of the applied nontariff measures (NTMs) on the traded
goods as it is considered a reflection for the policies support to guarantee effective
trade facilitation and smooth mechanisms of the agreement. The used tool for
analysis is the “Trade Map,” an online application developed by the International
Trade Centre (ITC), a joint agency between the United Nations (UN) and the World
Trade Organization (WTO). Trade Map offers detailed statistical information on
international trade flows using United Nations Comtrade database, and it presents
indicators on export performance, international demand, alternative markets, and
the role of competitors.
Industrial Clusters 311
This study attempts to generate important new insights into a phenomenon

that has not yet attracted a great deal of attention from scholars, as it distin-
guishes between policy-driven industrial clusters from traditional organic clusters.
The study is shading the lights to the continuous developments and adaptations of
the Agadir trade agreement, how it was evoluted and focused on specific indus-
trial sectors, and the creation of specific models of business cooperation between
the private sector in the four Arab countries.
Literature Review and Conceptual Frameworks

The concept of industrial clusters in the literature emerged more than 100 years
ago, and it was first introduced by Alfred Marshall in 1920 under the name of
“industrial district.” Then it became one of the most popular concepts in national
and regional development literature after Michael Porter’s book The Competitive
Advantage of Nations in 1990s, highlighting the interconnectivities between the
political, economic, and managerial aspects of clusters’ developments and
nations’ competitiveness. It was mainly centered about the productivity to
describe the competitiveness. “The only meaningful concept of competitiveness on
the national level is productivity, nation’s welfares are determined by how
nation’s labor and capital are employed” (Porter, 1990). Porter introduced the
competitiveness diamond based on four major factors: (1) the nature of firm
strategy, structure, and rivalry in the country, including attitudes toward
competition, market institutions, the degree of local competition, and other cul-
tural and historical factors affecting how firms do business with each other, their
workers, and the government; (2) factor conditions, or the basic endowments or
conditions on which the firm seeks to compete (e.g., cost-related basic factors such
as ready supplies of natural resources or inexpensive, unskilled labor versus
knowledge, and/or technology-related advanced factors); (3) demand conditions
or the nature of local demand (e.g., the needs and wants of the consumer for
foreign and domestic goods as well as the existence of local industrial demand for
related intermediate goods); and (4) the presence of related and supporting
industries, including suppliers and successful competitors (both to stimulate
cooperation, the latter to also stimulate rivalry).
One of the predominant terminologies in the industrial cluster literature is
cooperative competition “coopetition,” where the most competitive firms find
ways to work together for either product development or business development.
Schmitz (1995) captures the clustering advantages in the concept of collective
efficiency, distinguishing between passively acquired benefits that arise from
specialized agglomeration of skills, inputs, and knowledge and the actively
generated gains that accrue from the joint action of clustered actors. Thus,
cluster-based producers and workers can be potentially better off than they would
be if they were operating in isolation. In addition, clusters are also said to be
marked by a strong sense of common identity. Agglomeration will help clusters’
tenants to be more efficient through three mechanisms: sharing facilities, infra-
structure, and suppliers; matching workers productively through deep labor
312 Sameh Hammad
markets; and learning through dense and knowledge-rich environments that

facilitate knowledge exchange and innovation between the interdependent
clusters’ tenants.
Doeringer and Terkla (1995) specify three major drivers of industry clustering:
strategic business opportunities derived from specific kinds of interfirm alliances;
traditional regional factor market advantages (labor pools and localized knowl-
edge spillovers); and the role of nonbusiness institutions such as universities,
colleges, trade unions, and associations. The base of developing industrial clusters
has become a key goal for regional economic development as clusters have been
shown to strengthen competitiveness by increasing productivity, stimulating
innovative new partnerships, even among competitors, and presenting opportu-
nities for entrepreneurial activity (Porter, 1998a, 1998b). Porter explained how
clusters affect competition in three broad ways: first, by increasing the produc-
tivity of companies based in the cluster area; second, by driving the direction and
pace of innovation; and third, by stimulating the formation of businesses devel-
opment within the cluster. Moreover, he clarified the idea that geographic, cul-
tural, and institutional proximity provides companies with special access, closer
relationships, better information, powerful incentives, and other advantages that
are difficult to be tapped from a distance. There are various types of economies of
agglomeration identified in the literature, including input–output linkages, labor
market pooling, knowledge spillovers, sophisticated local demand, specialized
institutions, and the organizational structure of business and social networks
(Porter, 1990, 1998; Markusen, 1996; Saxenian, 1994; Swann & Prevezer, 1996;
among others).
GVC approach provides a way forward in analyzing both internal and external
linkages within clusters. Gereffi (1994) defines such chains as a set of interorga-
nizational networks clustered around one commodity or product, linking
households, enterprises, and states to one another within the world economy.
Thus, a value chain “describes the full range of activities that are required to bring
a product from its conception, through its design, its sourced raw materials and
intermediate inputs, its marketing, its distribution and its support to the final
consumer” (Kaplinsky, 1998). This provides a framework for charting how local
clusters access domestic and global markets via their links into value chains. The
approach emphasizes the role of governance, or conscious coordination, of
distinct activities within the chain. This highlights the significance of power in the
chain. The influence of actors in the chain can vary, affecting their ability to
determine the parameters of production – including what is produced, how, when,
and at what price (Humphrey & Schmitz, 2001).
Porter (2003) defines a cluster as a “Geographically proximate group of
interconnected companies, suppliers, service providers and associated institutions
in a particular field, linked by externalities of various types,” and he classifies
industrial clusters based on contribution to the national economy:
(1) Local industries clusters: They provide goods and services primarily to the
local markets depending on local employment, which is almost proportional
to the local population. They are characterized by high degree of speciali-

zation, mainly based on the spatial competitive advantage of being near to
the markets, and with a very limited competition with other same sector
clusters.
(2) Resources-depended industries clusters: They are concentrated where the
needed natural resources are found, and the employment in these industries is
attracted and relocated in the surrounding areas. They are characterized by
high degree of vertical and horizontal integration, mainly based on the
spatial competitive advantage of being near to the sources, and with a high
degree of competition with other domestic and international clusters.
(3) Traded industries clusters: They produce goods and services that are traded
across the national, regional, and international level. They are located based
on broader competitive considerations, and employment concentration
varies markedly by region. They are characterized by high degree of inno-
vation and are technology driven, and with a higher degree of competition
with other domestic, regional, and international clusters.
United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) defines

industrial cluster as “Geographic and economic concentration of manufacturing
activities which produce and sell a domain of interrelated and complementary
products and having common problems and opportunities.” In another state-
ment, “Clusters are geographic concentrations of interconnected companies
engaged in similar or highly related economic activities” (UNIDO, 2020). The
rationale behind this approach rests in that joint actions allow cluster stakeholders
to overcome limitations and reap opportunities that are beyond their individual
reach. Bottlenecks that constrain the growth of small-scale business are thereby
removed, triggering performance improvements under economic, social, and
environmental aspects. European Cluster Collaboration Platform defines indus-
trial clusters as “groups of firms, related economic actors, and institutions that are
located near each other and have reached a sufficient scale to develop specialized
expertise, services, resources, suppliers and skills.”
Industrial Clusters: Developments, Dynamics, and Processes
If you want to go fast. Go Alone.

If you want to go far. Go Together.
African proverb
It is a matter of “collaboration” not just “cooperation,” and when we

collaborate, we work together toward a shared goal that we will all benefit from
it. Thus, this concept must span across the entire tenants of the industrial cluster,
and from the other side, the responsibility of achievement is also shared among
the whole tenants. The “collaborative synergies” of joint forces are the motive for
any industrial cluster; in this manner, the tenants will take a part of this
314 Sameh Hammad
interactive process to work together and achieve outcomes they could not
accomplish independently, and that explains why companies are willing to pay
premiums to be established inside industrial clusters rather than general industrial
zones.
Drivers for Industrial Clusters’ Competitiveness

According to Porter (1998a, 1998b), economic geography in an era of global
competition poses a paradox. In theory, location should no longer be a source of
competitive advantage. Global markets, free trade, rapid transportation, and
spontaneously communications should allow any company to source anything
from any place at any time with minimal cost impact, and it has been widely
recognized that changes in technology and competition have diminished many of
the traditional roles of location. But in practice, location remains central to
competition and creation for new regional industrial clusters. Generally, global
sourcing mitigates disadvantages but does not create advantages and comes as the
second best option compared to proximity and concentration of clusters’ tenants.
Paradoxically, then, the enduring competitive advantages in a global economy are
often heavily local, arising from concentrations of highly specialized skills and
knowledge, supporting institutions, suppliers, and customers in a particular
country or region. Proximity in geographic, cultural, and institutional terms
allows speed access, special relationships, better information, powerful incentives,
and other opportunities for advantages in productivity that are difficult to source
from a distance.
Specialization enhances efficiency, and durable firm-to-firm relationships
promote the diffusion of technology and access to capital and inputs along the
chains. Eventually, however, these high growth rates cannot be sustained without
moving to progressively more sophisticated forms of participation. But the
transitions from limited manufacturing to more advanced manufacturing and
services, and finally to innovative activities, become increasingly more demanding
in terms of skills, connectivity, and regulatory institutions. “GVC participation is
determined by factor endowments, geography, market size, and institutions.
These fundamentals alone need not dictate destiny, however; policies also play an
important role. Policies to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) can remedy the
scarcity of capital, technology, and management skills” (Buelens & Tirpák, 2017).
The concept of productivity is usually paired with the definition of “efficiency”
– outputs/inputs ratio. Since the introduction of the scientific management concept
by Fredrick Taylor in the early 1900s setting the basis for the development of
production management and industrial engineering throughout the world, fol-
lowed by Adam Smith and David Ricardo’s works about specialization and
comparative advantages, specialization was and still is a concentric topic, even
with the emergence of the industrial clusters concept, where productivity is still a
major determinant and contributor for clusters’ development and success. Driven
from the concept of “effectiveness,” international trade and foreign direct
investments allowed countries to specialize in those industries where their
companies are more productive and deploying the limited pool of resources into
the optimum most productive uses. But also, it is a double sword situation
because the global exposure of national industries to the test of the international
standards of productivity demanded by foreign investors benchmarked by levels
in their home countries or other global production sites. The industrial cluster will
lose its competitive advantage if its productivity is not sufficiently higher or at
least same as their international rivals. Once the industrial cluster achieves the
efficiency and effectiveness, it can be easily categorized as “excellence” operation
and acquires the resonant terminologies of “best practice,” “benchmark,” etc.
Policies often support cluster formation and development by establishing or
promoting the necessary success factors of physical, soft, and legislative infra-
structures. It is a long-term commitment on the part of all actors concerned, and
in order to successfully shape the transformation and sustain future competi-
tiveness of the cluster’s ecosystem, these competences must be interlinked and
complemented. Globalized value creation processes enforce industrial clusters to
sell a stream of new and better products at competitive prices, taking into
consideration quality improvement and new technologies creations. Industrial
clusters have a significant development role in boosting collaboration and
networking among companies, liaising different ecosystems’ actors, encouraging
and supporting jobs creation, and enabling innovation among small and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to access GVCs. Moreover, it is a part of the
puzzle toward the efforts to successfully transform the ecosystem sustainably:
economically, socially, and environmentally. On a macrolevel, meeting Sustain-
able Development Goals (SDGs) will be a major indicator in cluster develop-
ments in the future, while on a microlevel, corporates and international investors
are looking for the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performances of
companies. The environmental aspect considers how companies perform as a
steward of nature, the social aspect considers how companies manage relation-
ships with employees, suppliers, customers, and the communities, while the
governance aspect considers the companies’ leadership, executive pay, audits,
internal controls, and shareholder rights.
Degree of Clustering (Cluster-o-Meter)

Mature clusters offer more than just networking, bundling firms, or initiate
cooperation. They can be used as an important instrument of holistic sustainable
development. The degree of clustering differs according to the number of enablers
(physical indicators) and the level of collaboration (soft indicators) (Fig. 11.1).
Whatever the level of sophistication for a cluster, there are some prerequisites that
must exist to differentiate the industrial cluster from the traditional industrial
agglomeration centered on cost minimization, and the industrial clusters’
advantages rest on information, transactions costs, complementarities, and
incentives.
316 Sameh Hammad
Fig. 11.1. Measuring the Degree of Clustering, “Cluster-o-Meter.”

Source: Author’s illustration.
Prerequisites for Clusters:
• Sector focus: Specialization and focusing on a certain sector or a value chain is

the main characteristic that differentiates between an industrial cluster and an
industrial zone, area, or park.
• Geographical proximity: Despite new technologies of communication and
transportation, still the nearby of factories represents a major factor for cluster
developments.
• Mass of interrelated companies: Business interrelations between clusters’ ten-
ants exist by default for inward and backward chains, but it also exists for
companies producing similar products through collaborations and exchanges.
• Cluster coordinator: Clusters’ management is essential to value the model of
collaboration by focusing on strategic lobbying and alliances, usually the
cluster management started by the founding entity, either public or private
sector, but by time, it is transferred to the clusters’ tenants themselves.
• Clear national policy: The legislative overarching support and national cluster’s
strategy pave the ways and facilitate the growth of industrial clusters on the
national and international levels.
Physical Indicators for Clusters:
• Business/investors association: A legal entity and a physical space must exist to

cater for the interests of the cluster’s tenants and to be viewed as their mini
union.
• One-stop shop: Public and governmental services related to operational activ-

ities of companies of the clusters could be very time consuming, and gathering
most of these services in one office inside the cluster is an indication about its
strength and size.
• Shared premises and facilities: Building the collaboration concept inside a
cluster starts by the existence of some shared services such as showrooms,
coworking spaces, maintenance workshop, mobile maintenance, rented tools
and equipment, laboratories, and quality accreditation during the whole pro-
cess starting from raw material inspection up to finished product inspection,
etc.
• Anchor industries: The existence of couple of anchor industries inside the cluster
increases the probabilities for the cluster’s growth and attracting more SMEs
and forming a base of feeding industries.
• Existence of tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3 suppliers: The percentage of transformation
done inside a cluster translates the governmental attention to expand the
success of existing clusters and deepen its contribution to national economy
and strategic industries.
• Designs, layouts, and master plans: Designing the master plan for a new
industrial cluster or for the extension of an existing one must consider the
backward and forward integrations between the tenants based on the nature of
each industry and the means of flows of its intermediary products.
• Technology support institutions: Having a sector specific technology institute
and specialized academia in the surroundings of the industrial cluster will
facilitate and prompt the cooperation between industry and academia to
manage the innovation process from its stimulation point up to its commer-
cialization phase.
• Technical and vocational education and training (TVET): An advanced TVET
system that operates inside the industrial cluster will create a continuous
streamline of new and trained workforce.
• Employment center: A dedicated physical platform for employment services
will cater for the needs of companies and job seekers.
• Industrial start-ups: To support the industrial entrepreneurship through incu-
bation facilities, accelerators programs related to the cluster’s innovation, and
technical boot camps.
Soft Indicators for Clusters:
• Business development services (BDS): The frequency and degree of utilization

of the BDS (financial and nonfinancial) inside the cluster either directly with
service providers or collectively through any of the abovementioned physical
platforms.
• Technical cooperation working groups: The real essence of “coopetition” could
be figured from the functionality of better networking, experience exchange,
and innovation support within working groups consisted by the tenants
themselves.
318 Sameh Hammad
• Cluster branding and public relations: Developing a cluster’s communication

strategy and investing in its brand equity by the tenants.
• Cluster bargaining power: It measures the strength of coordination between the
cluster members from the procurement side as “buyers” of raw materials or
from the selling side as “suppliers” of final products.
• Sustainability measures: It indicates how the sustainability measures such as
social, environmental, gender, and digital are embedded in the cluster/zone
level and correlated to the firm level.
• Degree of scalability: It measures the potentiality of the existing industries,
technologies, machines, and products to extend operations and serve other
sectors rather than the core sector of the industrial cluster.
• Joint business activities: It measures the frequency of conducting inhouse trade
activities such as business matchmaking, buyers’ delegations, etc., and external
activities such as trade missions, international exhibitions, etc.
• Joint research and development (R&D) activities: It measures the degree of
R&D collaboration among competitors and among supply chains for the
development of products and processes.
• Intratrade percentage: It is an indication about the degree of business coherence
among the cluster’s tenants either on the side of trading finished products or on
the side of trading industrial symbiosis.
• Degree of globalization: The ratio between the cluster’s national sales and
international sales is an indication about its efficient operations, collaborations,
and being a part in the GVCs.
Technology TAPE (Transfer, Adoption, Production, and Export)

The process of innovation and industrial technology development in general is
considered the locomotive of human civilization, and deeply back into history, all
nations contributed or set the basis for technological progresses. The most
commonly used terminology “technology transfer” is just only the first step for a
relay race that nations are sharing it together, and in our modern era, all countries
are technology users but not all of them are technology producers.
There are four steps for the technology cycle:
(1) Technology transfer:

The process starts by building and enabling the whole ecosystem of business
attractiveness for the hosting country or industrial cluster, then followed by
many other activities such as: knowledge creation, disclosures, assessments,
intellectual properties protection, and processes setups.
(2) Technology adoption:
The implantation of a certain technology into a certain country or an
industrial cluster must be safeguarded by the top-level adoption, govern-
mental support, policies, legislations, and national strategies.
(3) Technology production:
Producing technologies is totally different than using and applying them; the
value add here starts by research, development, and innovation to enhance

existing technologies and produce new ones.
(4) Technology export:
The possession of the technology know-how, production capabilities, and
economies of scales will enable the developed countries and industrial clus-
ters to transfer to the technology to other emerging countries and industrial
clusters (Fig. 11.2).
Based on the connectivity concept of the Fourth Industrial Revolution

“Industry 4.0,” the industries of the future are all powered by technology. And
here we need to differentiate between two intertwined and jumbled terminologies,
“industrial technologies” and “technological industries.” Industrial technologies
are the use of manufacturing technologies and applications to make production
faster, simpler, and more efficient. Technological industries are the new type of
industries that are mainly revolving around the manufacturing of electronics and
creation of software, computers, or products and services relating to information
technology.
Regional Industrial Clusters: In Theory and Practice

Framework
Regional economies of scale based on shared investments, skilled workers,
knowledge networks, and a culture of innovation present the opportunity to
specialize and create a binding force on a regional level. This can lead to a
regional upgrade in terms of economic development, giving it appeal for new
complementary business relocations and related industrial clusters growth.
According to zu Köcker, Benedikt, and Schneider (2020), the trilogy of regional
economic development, innovation strategies, and clusters development is
Fig. 11.2. Technology TAPE. Source: Author’s illustration.

320 Sameh Hammad
strongly intertwined. A regional innovation strategy typically relies on existing

local resource concentrations which are clusters. Cluster initiatives are ideal
“tools” to use in the process of developing and implementing regional policies and
strategies. In this perspective, clusters are vehicles transmitting innovation pro-
cesses initiated by regional policies to the microlevel. On the other side of the coin,
clusters are often also direct beneficiaries of such strategies. Whereas the overall
objectives of cluster development are similar for well-developed and less-
developed regions, only the focus areas may differ. While joint R&D and inno-
vation as well as common product development is at the core of many cluster
activities in developed countries, clusters in less-developed countries often focus
on productivity improvement, raising quality of products, skill development,
policy advocacy, and export promotion. But according to many international
cases, there is considerable evidence of powerful diffusion effects that spread
competitive production technologies through the suppliers’ value chains.
Saxenian (1994, 1996) illustrated the global growth of regional industrial
clusters by three main advantages:
• Regional adaptive capacity of industry: This means whether local enterprises

could flexibly be able to meet the adjustments required for changes of business
environments.
• Strategies of creating globally competitive core competence and networking
capabilities: This means whether local enterprises in regions would have strong
core competence and advantages which will be able to flexibly adjust the
contents and to eventually win the global competition.
• Networking with other innovative industrial clusters: This means value-added
networking with other industrial and knowledge clusters is essential in order to
create synergetic effects of products and services.
According to the Guidebook series (2016), collaboration across regional

clusters had proven to be an important mechanism of improving both the effec-
tiveness and efficiency of clusters; such strategic partnerships are particularly
important for the formulation and implementation of win–win specialization
strategies and avoiding overlaps and competitions for the same resources while
strengthening the complementarities.
Clusters role as agents of regional and economic transformation will continue
to grow, and recent regional integration initiatives have progressed on services,
investment, and infrastructure, where business development services are the filler
that agglutinate value chains together and maximize their value addition. Pref-
erential trade agreements with investment provisions have a higher impact on
value chain integration than stand-alone bilateral investment agreements. The
impact on domestic value-added exports through value chains is greater when
investment and trade happen under one legal umbrella.
The work of the European Cluster Excellence Initiative (ECEI) in 2009
revealed that two aspects became more and more important in connection with
cluster internationalization. On the long run, internationalization, as cluster
development itself, is a long-term process. Many cluster internationalization

efforts failed because the partners involved were only looking for quick wins.
On the strategic front, positive impacts resulted from those cases where
international cluster partnerships aimed at a higher and more strategic level (zu
Köcker et al., 2020). Benner (2012) identified that international spatial competi-
tion for the location of economic activity might intensify in some industries for
some activities or stages of value chains. The notion of clusters offers an apparent
way to anchor economic activity in regions, as the advantages cluster offer are
localized. After all, if they were not, clustering would neither exist nor persist.
Considering the high state of human capital as well as the low average age and
high growth rates of the populations of most Middle East and North Africa
(MENA) countries, policies that aim at creating jobs might not be sufficient to
provide enough employment opportunities for present and future young genera-
tions. Thus, fostering new dynamic industrial clusters can offer more favorable
conditions for new businesses and job creation.
Euro-Mediterranean Partnership
Barcelona Declaration 1995
The Barcelona Conference of 1995 brought together the Ministers for Foreign
Affairs of the 15 EU member states and the following 12 Mediterranean
nonmember countries: Algeria, Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta,
Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Syria, Tunisia, and Turkey. With the signing
of the Barcelona Declaration in November 1995, a new phase in the Euro-
Mediterranean partnership was started. It aimed at creating an area of shared
prosperity in the Mediterranean and recognized that this required sustainable and
balanced socioeconomic development and an improvement of the living condi-
tions of the populations and an increase in the employment level and the
encouragement of regional cooperation and integration. A key policy instrument
to achieve this outcome was to progressively establish a free trade area (FTA)
between the EU and regional partners and between these regional partners
(CASE Network Reports, 2009).
Association Agreements
The agreement between the EU and the Southern Mediterranean countries was
based on the Euro-Mediterranean partnership (political, economic, and social).
Each agreement was adapted to the specificities of the non-EU country con-
cerned. However, they all share in principle the same basic structure that covers
the following main points: political dialogue; free movement of goods; estab-
lishment of services; payments, capital, competition, and other economic mea-
sures; economic cooperation; cooperation in social and cultural matters;
cooperation on environmental protection; financial cooperation; and institutional
and general rules. Association agreements came into force as follows: July 1997
with Palestine, March 1998 with Tunisia, March 2000 with Morocco, June 2000
322 Sameh Hammad
with Israel, May 2002 with Jordan, June 2004 with Egypt, September 2005 with
Algeria, and April 2006 with Lebanon.
Union for the Mediterranean

The Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) was launched in 2008 as a continuation
of the Barcelona Process. Along with the 27 EU member states, 15 Southern
Mediterranean countries are members of the UfM: Albania, Algeria, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Monaco, Montenegro,
Morocco, Palestine, Syria (suspended), Tunisia, and Turkey. Libya is an observer.
UfM promotes cooperation and dialogue in the Euro-Mediterranean region
through projects and initiatives addressing the three strategic objectives of
regional stability, human development, and economic regional integration.
Agadir Agreement
Overview
According to CASE Network Reports (2009), the Agadir Agreement established
a free trade zone between Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia. It is open to
include other Arab-Mediterranean nations. Signed in Rabat on February 25,
2004, it was ratified on January 1, 2006, and came into force on July 6, 2006. The
Agadir Agreement is fully in line with the objectives of the Barcelona Process and
is supported by the European Union. Its objectives are ambitious; they include (1)
developing economic activity, supporting employment, increasing production,
and improving the standards of living within the member states, (2) unifying the
public and private economic policies of the member states in areas dealing with
external commerce and agriculture, industry, the tax system, the financial system,
services, and customs and that which facilitates competition between the member
states, and (3) bringing closer the economic legislations of the member states in
the hope of producing an adequate climate for the conditions of merger between
the member states.
The Agreement specifies the gradual reduction of tariffs on the import of
industrial goods, according to specified schedule and categories of goods. The free
trade objective was originally targeted for implementation by 2006. The freeing of
the agricultural products would be completed in correspondence with progress
made toward development of commercial exchange between the Arab nations for
the development of a Greater Arab Free Trade Zone. The Agreement calls for
member states to implement the WTO requirements contained in the schedule for
the General Commercial Services Agreement. The Agreement prohibits the
imposition of new taxes of duties and specifies the adoption of diagonal rules of
origin. Public procurement should eliminate national preferences. Special pro-
visions are stipulated to (1) protect domestic producers against surges in imports
that would cause a threat of immense damage to local industry or agriculture, (2)
permit temporary protection for infant industries, and (3) take protective actions
in case of strains on the balance of payments.
According to Wippel (2005), the organizational structure of the agreement

comprises four bodies.
(1) Commission of foreign ministers: responsible for the political framework and
defines general political measures to strengthen the integration process.
(2) Commission of foreign trade ministers: responsible for implementing the
agreement and defining appropriate measures to overcome impediments.
(3) Task of the technical commission: assist in conflict resolution and work on
questions submitted by the ministerial commission.
(4) Technical unit: provide technical support for the implementation of the
agreement and ministerial decisions, as well as providing recommendations
and resolutions to problems that might arise.
Cumulation of Origin
In the Euro-Mediterranean area, the option of applying the diagonal cumulation
of origin is governed by the “variable geometry,” meaning that the countries of
this area cannot cumulate the origin unless the free trade agreements including a
pan-Euro-Mediterranean system of origin are applicable to them. Consequently,
if one country is not bound to the other countries of the area by free trade
agreements, it cannot benefit from the cumulation of origin. Thus, Agadir
Agreement comprises rules of origin identical to those of the Euro-Mediterranean
protocol.
Therefore, the economic cooperation between the EU and the four countries
could be seen in one of the following two axis:
• Implantation of the European OEMs in the southern industrial bases of Agadir

countries with an economy of scale perspectives;
• Improved access of manufactured component products to the EU markets.
Agreement Clauses Related to Industrial Goods

The Agadir Agreement includes several clauses specifically related to industrial
goods, and in sections (2) and (3) “Arrangements for liberalizing trade,” there are
lot of articles encouraging the cooperation and trade of industrial goods among
the agreement countries:
Article 3: Industrial Goods. Industrial goods (commodities and products)
traded between the Member Countries shall be subject to a process of dismantlement
of customs duties and other duties and taxes of similar effect with regard to
importation, as follows: (1) Immediate and complete mutual exemption, upon entry
into force of the Agreement (Agadir Agreement Text, 2006), for lists of goods
subject to immediate and rapid dismantling with the EU, (2) Continuation of work
on the immediate exemptions specified in bilateral agreements. (3) In relation to
other industrial products subject to customs duties and not listed for immediate
dismantling, the date of 1 January 2005 is confirmed as the latest date for the end of
the transitional period.
Article 6: Rules of Origin
324 Sameh Hammad
(1) Shall be considered as of local origin and source goods (commodities and
products) meeting the requirements of the Protocol on Rules of Origin, Annex
II to this agreement, in conformity with the Pan Euro-Med Protocol on Rules
of Origin, and any future modifications which may be made to it.
(2) Goods of local origin and source (commodities and products) exported from
one member country to another shall be accompanied by a certificate of origin
issued by the competent authorities in the exporting country, bearing the visa
and certification of the competent authorities in the same country, in accor-
dance with the Protocol on Rules of Origin specific to this Agreement.
(3) The Committee of Foreign Trade Ministers shall monitor on a continual basis
any modifications which may be required to this Protocol, with a view to the
sound application of the Rules of Origin.
Article 10: National Treatment. Goods traded between the Member Countries
having the origin and source of those countries will be accorded the treatment of
national goods.
On the contrary, in section (4) of the agreement “Procedures,” there are some
other articles that could chain the process and the deep integration between the
member states:
Article 15: Defensive Procedures. Each Member Country shall have the right to
initiate defensive procedures as specified in the agreement establishing the World
Trade Organization. Such procedures shall only be applied in relation to products
which any party shall determine have been imported into its territory from another
Member Country in increasing quantities, either in absolute terms, or proportionally
in relation to local production, in such a manner as to cause, or to threaten to cause,
substantial damage to local industry or agriculture producing similar products, or
products directly competing with the products imported from the other Member
Country. Such procedures shall be in accordance with the applicable laws and rules
in each of the Members Countries of this Agreement.
Article 16: Infant Industries. Each Member Country may take measures of
limited duration, during the period of progressive dismantlement of customs duties
and duties and taxes of similar effect, as an exception to the provisions of Articles 3
and 4 of this Agreement, in the form of increased customs duties, or the
re-introduction of customs duties and duties and taxes of equivalent effect, having
effect in relation to infant industries or sectors undergoing restructuring or facing
serious difficulties.
• Each Member country shall inform the other parties of any exceptional measure
which it intends to take, and of the timetable for the removal of such customs
duties and other taxes of equivalent effect imposed in accordance with this
Article.
• The Foreign Trade Ministers’ Committee shall study the measures proposed by
each concerned Member Country, and such measures shall not be implemented
until such time as this Committee has given its agreement.
Article 18: Disequilibrium in the Balance of Payments. In the event of one of the
Member Countries facing dangers, difficulties, or disequilibrium in relation to its
balance of payments, or the threat of such, it may take appropriate measures in

accordance with the provisions of the World Trade Organization agreement. The
Member Country suffering such a situation shall inform the Committee of Foreign
Trade Ministers of these measures and shall specify the timetable for their removal.
Remarkable Operational Milestones in Agadir Trade Agreement

Conducting Sectoral Studies to Enable Industrial Integration Among Agadir
Countries. With an aim to identify sectors with potential for industrial integra-
tion and to benefit from possible opportunities of origin accumulation, four
sectoral studies have been conducted since the establishment of the Agadir
Technical Unit:
(1) Regional study on the opportunities of complementarity and partnership in

the food manufacturing industry between the Agadir Agreement member
countries (July 2015) conducted by “Human Capital Project” (HCP).
(2) Comprehensive sector study regarding the opportunities of complementar-
ities and industrial integration in the leather and shoes sector in the member
countries of the Agadir Agreement (September 2009) conducted by Mah-
moud Qattous and Terry McCallin.
(3) Origin accumulation and complementarities’ opportunities in the
textile-apparel sector in the member countries of the Arab-Mediterranean
Free Trade Agreement (March 2008) conducted by Jean-François
Limantour and Tahar Ben Amor.
(4) Study on the components and spare parts (SPs) industry and motor vehicle
assembly activities in the Arab-Mediterranean Free Trade Agreement
Member Countries, known as the Agadir Agreement (January 2008) con-
ducted by Ucotra consulting.
The National Focal Points. Such bodies were established in each member state
to harmonize requirements for the free trade agreement through increasing effi-
ciency, reducing transaction costs, and increasing trade volumes. The two main
working areas are standardization and customs release facilitation. Agadir min-
isters of foreign trade signed a memorandum of understanding in the field of
mutual recognition of the certificates of conformity in December 2009 where
products that hold a Certificate of Conformity shall not be reexamined or verified
again in the country of destination. Similarly, a customs committee was estab-
lished to reduce customs duties, exchange information, promote cooperation, and
promote capacity developments among customs department officials (Oumaz-
zane, 2021).
Private Sector Engagement (Agadir Business Council). The Agadir Business
Council was established in 2016, and the council includes in its membership the
General Confederation of Moroccan Enterprises, Federation of Egyptian
Industries, Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts, the Jor-
dan Chamber of Industry, and the Jordan Chamber of Commerce as founding
members. The Agadir Business Council aims to enhance the role of the private
sector and the business community to enhance the level of economic and
326 Sameh Hammad
commercial relations, benefit from origin accumulation, and work on available

opportunities for integration and partnerships especially for SMEs, in addition to
support and encourage the businesses that use the accumulation of origin and
propose the best mechanisms to follow them and help them to improve their
performance and competitiveness in export markets either between them or
toward the European Union.
Periodical Newsletters. Recently, Agadir Technical Unit started to issue
periodical newsletter for their activities and updates; the first edition was in
November 2018 for a quarterly basis edition then changed to be semiannual
editions, and a total of six releases had been issued till our day.
Establishment of a Portal for Notification of Obstacles Faced by the Economic
Operators. Agadir Technical Unit had established an electronic portal to report
on the difficulties that may be faced by economic operators under the framework
of the Agadir Agreement implementation.
Trade Relations and Global Value Chains Within Agadir Agreement Context
The ultimate goal of the agreement could be achieved if the countries manage to
overcome the difficulties related to similarities of their products and services,
which are based on similar competitive advantages. A wider angle for regional
development must be started by collaborating in a process of complementarity
and clustering of their industrial manufacturing portfolios; furthermore, Agadir
countries could therefore integrate the GVC and position themselves as
competitive manufacturing hubs and one big industrial cluster. By analyzing the
total exports of Agadir countries for the last 20 years, we can figure a remarkable
leap for their exports in the year 2007/2008, where Egypt achieved the higher
growth rate of 60.61% followed by Morocco 39.01%, Jordan 36.52%, and Tunisia
27.40% (Fig. 11.3).
Agadir countries had newly exported high- and medium-to-high-tech products.
The best performing technology rising stars are in sectors such as machinery,
vehicles, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals, which could be further deepened by
integrating into GVCs. The World Development Report (World Bank, 2020)
suggests that countries have potential to transition into more sophisticated forms
of GVC participation as they progressively become engaged in the sectors most
amenable to GVCs, such as electronics and machinery.
Case Study: Automotive Industries Sector in Agadir Countries

Rationale of Choosing Automotive Sector
In general, trade agreements expand market access, and they have been a critical
catalyst for GVC entry in a wide range of countries. The biggest
automation-induced increase in trade has been in the quick-to-automate auto-
motive sector (Fig. 11.4). Countries already supplying inputs to automating
producers in the north shore of the Mediterranean are well positioned to benefit
from the higher demand for their exports. But countries directly competing with
35000
Units in USD Millions
30000
25000
20000
15000
10000
5000
0
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
Egypt Jordan Morocco Tunisia
Fig. 11.3. Total Exports of Agadir Countries (2001–2020). Source:

Author’s calculations based on ITC Trade map (UN COMTRADE
Statistics).
Fig. 11.4. Automation in Industrial Countries has Boosted Imports

From Developing Countries. Source: Adopted from World Development
Report (2020): Trading for development in the age of global value chains.
328 Sameh Hammad
them in output markets could lose export revenue and manufacturing employ-
ment if their workers are outcompeted by foreign robots. The negative effects of
reduced manufacturing employment could outweigh the welfare gains associated
with the lower import prices resulting from automation in the North, at least in
the short run. But these countries might benefit from automation-induced
increases in global productivity and income, which could translate into more
exports and activity in sectors where they retain a comparative advantage (World
Development Report, 2020: Trading for development in the age of global value
chains).
Based on the automotive sectoral study conducted by Ucotra consulting on
behalf of Agadir Technical Unit (ATU) in 2008, there are seven main goals for
the deep integration of the automotive industry in Agadir countries:
• Boosting trade between the Agadir Agreement countries in terms of compo-

nents and SPs and locally assembled vehicles
• Creating cooperation areas among countries in order to take advantage of the
opportunities of cumulation of origin
• Developing exports of automotive equipment and SPs to Europe and other
destinations offering potential opportunities
• Providing development scenarios for equipment and SP industries in the
Agadir countries in order to boost their competitiveness and their ability to
penetrate the European market
• Promoting complementarities and the concept of comparative advantages
within the quartet, thus reinforcing the competitiveness of the assembly and car
components sector
• Attracting further foreign direct investment in the sector of car components as
well as assembly in the Agadir Agreement member countries
• Working out pragmatic strategies that enable the four Agadir Agreement
member countries to integrate their activities in terms of vehicle assembly,
equipment, and car components and SPs into the international market and take
advantage of the opportunities offered by their respective domestic markets
The automotive industry requires a complex set of components and materials

that originate from dozens of locations across the globe; there are possible two
ways of integration of a regional value chain:
(1) Extensive integration: It is more regarding a quantity approach focusing on

more integrated regional value chain with higher number of components
manufactured in the region.
(2) Intensive integration: It is more regarding a quality approach focusing on one
product and its upstream value chain to deliver higher value products.
There is a potential for regional value chains in automotive industry regarding

to strategic interest for this sector from governments, multinational companies,
and regional development. This could be achieved through set of national
policies, investing in feeding industries, using more regional production inputs,

marketing for opportunities for partnerships, and political willingness.
Facts and Figures for the Automotive Sectors in Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia
Automotive Sector in Egypt
According to the Country Private Sector Diagnostic (2020), Egypt has a signifi-
cantly large base of feeding industries supplying a few assemblers that focus
mainly on the production of passenger cars. In 2019, the nine active automotive
manufacturers had a total production capacity of up to 350,000 vehicles per year,
but the actual utilization rate was only 30%. Only one global original equipment
manufacturer (OEM), Nissan, has operations in Egypt, while General Motors,
Suzuki, Fiat Chrysler, and Toyota operate through joint ventures. However, the
manufacturers of components and feeding industries, approximately 500 com-
panies manufacture components and parts mainly exhaust components, air con-
ditioning units, radiators, plastics for interiors, windshields, mirrors, seats, and
manufacturer approved after sale SPs. Of the 500, there are about 80 tier 2
suppliers feeding local assembly but only 5 global tier 1 suppliers, most of the
companies are located in the industrial zone of the 6th of October city and a little
number in the industrial zone of the 10th of Ramadan city. One of the biggest
challenges for the automotive industry in Egypt and for private investment is the
lack of a clear government strategy. Fragmented domestic production has
resulted in undeveloped economies of scale and low localization rates. Mean-
while, Daimler signed in 2021 a memorandum of understanding to restart pro-
duction of Mercedes-Benz cars in Egypt after a four-year halt, and the plant will
assemble SUVs, although Daimler did not announce which models.
On the other hand, Egypt is trying to tackle green mobility industry centered
on electric vehicles and buses, where some agreements have been announced with
Chinese companies, including truck maker Foton, which is planning to build up
to 2,000 electric buses a year, and previously some electric buses that have been
procured by the government and piloted in Alexandria city. An agreement
between the publicly owned company El Nasr and the Chinese automotive
manufacturer Dongfeng was announced in 2020 to build their model E70 in El
Nasr company, but it was stumbled at end of 2021. Currently, some of other
serious talks are undertaken with another Chinese company and another German
company to cooperate for EV manufacturing. Additionally, ReVolta, an
emerging Egyptian e-mobility company, is getting ready to produce charging
stations, a solar farm, and eventually EVs.
Automotive Sector in Morocco

Morocco’s emerging car manufacturing industry achieved a considerable leap and
significantly increased in the weight of the domestic manufacturing sector in its
exports. The rise in Moroccan exports occurred in a context of higher flows of
manufactured goods to and from EU member countries, in addition to the
developed industry of components and parts, particularly, the branch of
330 Sameh Hammad
mechanicals components and the electric branch of cables and wiring harnesses.
The number of players in Morocco’s automotive industry has been increasing
steadily since the mid-2000s with Renault’s acquisition of the state-owned com-
pany Somaca (Société marocaine de constructions automobiles) in 2003 and
opening of Renault’s Tangiers plant in 2012, which provided a boost to
Morocco’s wider auto supply chain, as this plant builds cars from scratch rather
than assembling them from completely knocked-down kits (CKD), which
extended the industry to be more diversified and sophisticated in the production
processes (Country Private Sector Diagnostic, 2019).
Geographically, the Moroccan automotive industry is strongly concentrated in
four locations: Tangier (43%), Casablanca (39%), Rabat (11%), and Kenitra (7%).
However, the industry has been active in Casablanca for more than 50 years due
to the presence of Somaca (Vidican-Auktor & Hahn, 2017). Nevertheless, Tangier
has already become the predominant location, and Tangier-Med Port is a major
logistic and industrial hub that connects to 186 ports worldwide. It is currently
used as a platform for major European car manufacturers to assemble vehicles
and build engines to export to EU and African markets. The aim of the Tangier-
Med project is to better integrate Morocco into global supply chains by offering
logistics zones with free port advantages and direct accessibility to global shipping
routes. The Tangier Med platform includes Tangier Free Zone, Tangier Auto-
motive City, Tetouan Park, Tetouan Shore, the Logistics Free Zone, and Renault
Tanger Med. Al Boraq, a new high-speed train line launched in November 2018,
connects Tangier, the Moroccan automotive capital, to Casablanca in just two
hours and 10 minutes.
Renault-Nissan Morocco: The Renault-Nissan plant is the largest automobile
plant in Africa. Annual production surpassed 400,000 vehicles in 2019, 90% of
which is exported to 74 countries.
PSA Peugeot-Citroën: The PSA Group operates a plant in Kenitra since 2019,
covering 23 hectares and with a 200,000 vehicles/year production capacity. It is
designed as an export platform serving Africa and the Middle East. Both PSA and
Renault have attracted dozens of suppliers, large and small, to Morocco. Some
50% of content used at their factories comes from local suppliers, with a national
target of 65% by 2022. The Moroccan industrial ecosystem for component
manufacturing is well diversified, where we can figure out six automotive feeding
industries clusters to attract tier 2 and tier 3 OEMs.
(1) Wiring cluster: Focusing on the production of cables and copper wires
components. It includes some multinational corporations (MNCs) such as
Yazaki, Delphi, Fujikura, Sumitomo, Lear, MTA, and Leoni.
(2) Metal and stamping cluster: Focusing on the production of steel, tooling,
tubing, and cataphoresis. It includes some MNCs such as PSA, Renault,
Snop, Gestamp, Socafix, GMD, and Tuyauto.
(3) Battery cluster: Focusing on batteries’ manufacturing and lead recycling
activities. It includes some national companies such as Electra, Almabat,
Tecna, and Maribat.
(4) Seats and interiors cluster: Focusing on the production of car seats and
vehicles interior components, such as textiles, foam, blow molding, and glass.
It includes some MNCs such as Faurecia, SIGIT, Polydesign Exco, Reydel,
and GMD.
(5) Engines and transmissions cluster: Focusing on cast iron casting, aluminum
die casting, aluminum pressure injection, aluminum refining, and engine
machining. It includes some MNCs such as Valeo, Delphi, and Mecaplast.
(6) Trucks and industrial vehicles bodies cluster: Focusing on the
manufacturing, assembly, transformation, and fitting out of buses, trucks,
and industrial vehicles. It includes some MNCs such as Scania Morocco and
Irizar.
Morocco’s automotive industry has become the country’s leading exporter

sector. In 2019, export revenues stood at $10.5 billion representing 25% of
Morocco’s total exports, and 80% of vehicles produced are destined to European
markets, mainly France (31%), Spain (11%), Germany (9%), and Italy (9%).
Other destinations include Turkey (8%) and Arab countries (5%).
The country is Africa’s second largest automaker trailing South Africa and
first passenger car manufacturer. The Moroccan automotive industry in 2019
comprises over 250 companies, creating over 148,000 direct jobs (in the
2014–2019 period), producing more than 400,000 vehicles with a local component
rate of 60%. Fitch Ratings automotive department forecasts the sector to grow at
an average annual rate of 17.5% between 2020 and 2025 (Trade Commissioner,
Government of Canada).
Automotive Sector in Tunisia

The Tunisian automotive industry is one of the key drivers of the country’s
economy, the value chain is well diversified, but it misses OEMs and thus does not
make full use of its industrial bases and technical workforce. According to the
Tunisia Investment Authority, Automotive Sector Presentation (2019), the
automotive industry is mainly located in the Northeast part of the country, and
there are four main geographical industrial automotive clusters:
• Ben Arous industrial zone: It is considered the largest Tunisian automotive

industrial agglomeration, focusing on electrical components and mechatronics
components. Some multinational companies are located such as Valeo, TIS,
Sagemcom, and PEUGEOT Pick Up.
• Sousse industrial zones: They are hosting some global players in automotive
wiring manufacturing such as Leoni and Dräxlmaier, in addition to R&D
center of Yamaichi Electronics.
• Bizerte area: It is mainly hosting information and communications technology
(ICT) companies, while some of them are related to automotive sector such as
Actia, Ardia, and Telnet.
• Manouba industrial zone: It hosts actors in mechanical components such as
Misfat and LTM.
332 Sameh Hammad
Analyzing Trade Flows and Methodological Approach

The study analyses the international trade flows of six main products to examine
the impact of Agadir Agreement on the development of the automotive industries
in the four countries of Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia, covering passenger
cars, commercial vehicles (light pickups and minibuses), general parts and com-
ponents, electrical wires and harnesses, and tempered glasses.
HS Code 8702 Motor vehicles for the transport of ten or more

persons, including the driver
HS Code 8703 Motor cars and other motor vehicles principally
designed for the transport of persons, incl. station
wagons and racing cars
HS Code 8704 Motor vehicles for the transport of goods, incl.
chassis with engine and cab
HS Code 8708 Parts and accessories for tractors, motor vehicles
for the transport of ten or more persons, motor
cars and other motor vehicles principally designed
for the transport of persons, motor vehicles for the
transport of goods and special purpose motor
vehicles
HS Code 854430 Ignition wiring sets and other wiring sets of a kind
used in vehicles, aircraft, or ships
HS Code 700711 Toughened tempered safety glass, of size and
shape suitable for incorporation in motor
vehicles, aircraft, spacecraft, vessels, and other
vehicles
The HS codes 8702, 8703, and 8704 represent finished final consumer products,
while HS codes 8704, 854430, and 700711 represent parts and production inputs
for the prementioned categories, whereas the degree of collaboration among the
four countries is expected to be highly detected.
Passengers Cars and Commercial Vehicles

HS Code 8702: Motor Vehicles for the Transport of Ten or More Persons,
Including the Driver. Egypt achieved a remarkable increase in its exports for the year
2008 reaching a total of USD 80.368 million compared to zero exports in the previous
year of 2007 (Fig. 11.5), but Egypt could not build on this extraordinary increase of
its exports in the later years despite its achievement of a positive trade balance in the
year of 2017 (Fig. 11.6). Only Jordan represented an export market for the Egyptian
minibuses, which was started prior to the implementation of Agadir Agreement and
could not use it for stabilizing itself in the Jordanian market (Fig. 11.7).
HS Code 8703: Motor Cars and Other Motor Vehicles Principally Designed for
the Transport of Persons, Incl. Station Wagons and Racing Cars. Steadily,
Morocco builds its automotive industrial base for the manufacturing of passenger
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
Fig. 11.5. Exports of HS Code 8702: “Motor Vehicles for the

Transport of 10 or more Persons, Including the Driver” (2001–2020) for
Agadir Countries. Source: Author’s calculations based on ITC Trade map
(UN COMTRADE Statistics).
50
0
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
-50
-100
-150
-200
Fig. 11.6. Trade Balance of HS Code 8702: “Motor Vehicles for the
Transport of 10 or More Persons, Including the Driver” (2001–2020) for
334 Sameh Hammad
10.00%
9.00%
8.00%
7.00%
6.00%
5.00%
4.00%
3.00%
2.00%
1.00%
0.00%
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
Egypt share of Morocco's imports Egypt share of Tunisia's imports
Egypt share of Jordan's imports
Fig. 11.7. Egypt’s Shares of the Imports of the HS Code 8702:

“Motor Vehicles for the Transport of 10 or more Persons, InclDriver” by
Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia (2001–2020). Source: Author’s calculations
based on ITC Trade map (UN COMTRADE Statistics).
cars, and for the decade 2011–2020, it achieved an export CAGR of 27.37%,
reaching its peak in the year 2018 and achieving USD 3.573 billion (Fig. 11.8),
which is representing more than 12% of Morocco’s total exports (Fig. 11.9).
Additionally, Morocco achieved its first positive trade balance in the year 2014,
which is still organically increasing and reaching USD 1.547 billion in the year
2020 (Fig. 11.10), which was accompanied by same importation rates for the first
part of the decade, and even more of increases in the second half of the decade
except the last two years as an impact of COVID-19 pandemic. Since the acti-
vation of Agadir Agreement, Morocco’s exports of passengers’ cars started to
have shares in the imports of both Egypt and Tunisia, representing more than
12% of Egypt’s imports in the year 2016, and more than 4% of Tunisia’s imports
in the year 2015 (Fig. 11.11).
HS Code 8704: Motor Vehicles for the Transport of Goods, Incl. Chassis With
Engine and Cab. Morocco achieved a remarkable increase in its exports for the
year 2009, reaching a total of USD 102.063 million compared to USD 31.257
million in the previous year of 2008 (Fig. 11.12), but Morocco did not continue
the investment in the pickups and transport of goods vehicles and focused more
on the passengers’ cars. Also, neither Egypt, Jordan, nor Tunisia did a consid-
erable achievement with the same regard, except for the local sufficiency that
cannot be traced in the figures of international trade (Fig. 11.13).
4000
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
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2011
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2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
Egtpt Jordan Morocco Tunisia
Fig. 11.8. Exports of HS Code 8703: “Motor Cars and Other Motor
Vehicles Principally Designed for the Transport of Persons” (2001–2020) for
14.00%
12.00%
10.00%
8.00%
6.00%
4.00%
2.00%
0.00%
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
Fig. 11.9. Share to the Total Country Exports for HS Code 8703:
“Motor Cars and Other Motor Vehicles Principally Designed for the
Transport of Persons” (2001–2020) for Agadir Countries. Source: Author’s
calculations based on ITC Trade map (UN COMTRADE Statistics).
336 Sameh Hammad
2000
1000
0
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
-1000
-2000
-3000
-4000
Fig. 11.10. Trade Balance of HS Code 8703: “Motor Cars and Other
Motor Vehicles Principally Designed for the Transport of Persons”
(2001–2020) for Agadir Countries. Source: Author’s calculations based on
ITC Trade map (UN COMTRADE Statistics).
14.00%
12.00%
10.00%
8.00%
6.00%
4.00%
2.00%
0.00%
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
Morocco share in Egypt's imports Morocco share in Tunisia's imports

Morocco share in Jordan's imports
Fig. 11.11. Morocco’s Shares of the Imports of the HS Code 8703:

“Motor Cars and Other Motor Vehicles Principally Designed for the
Transport of Persons” (2001–2020) for Agadir Countries. Source: Author’s
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
Fig. 11.12. Exports of HS Code 8704: “Motor Vehicles for the

Transport of Goods, Incl. Chassis With Engine and Cab” (2001–2020) for
0
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
-100 2020
-200
-300
-400
-500
-600
-700
-800
Fig. 11.13. Trade Balance of HS Code 8704: “Motor Vehicles for the
Transport of Goods, Incl. Chassis With Engine and Cab” (2001–2020) for
338 Sameh Hammad
Parts, Accessories, and Components

HS Code 8708: Parts and Accessories for Tractors, Motor Vehicles for the
Transport of Ten or More Persons, Motor Cars and Other Motor Vehicles. Both
of Morocco and Tunisia are having a substantial part in their exports for the
automotive parts and components and being active players for the automotive
GVCs; Tunisia started earlier than Morocco for exporting parts and accessories,
but for the last 2 years (2018–2020), Morocco achieved a remarkable leap,
surpassing the exports of Tunisia (Fig. 11.14).
In this section of parts, accessories, and components, we will extend our analysis
to check the intratrade relations among Agadir companies themselves. Tunisia was
ranked 13th in Morocco’s imports in the year 2020, while Egypt was ranked 41st,
despite the very low percentage of Tunisia’s share, but it still exists, unlike Egypt’s
case, which achieved some considerable shares before and at the early days of Agadir
Agreement, then completely vanished in the year 2010 (Fig. 11.15). On the other
hand, Morocco was ranked the seventh of Tunisia export markets for the year 2020,
while Egypt was ranked 16th, where we can notice a partial cooperation between
Morocco and Tunisia for trading automotive parts and accessories (Fig. 11.16).
HS Code 854430: Ignition Wiring Sets and Other Wiring Sets of a Kind Used in
Vehicles, Aircraft, or Ships. There is a notable homogeneity among the three
countries of Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia for the manufacturing of automotive
wirings and harnesses because of the long-ago existence of multinational
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
Fig. 11.14. Exports of HS Code 8708: “Parts and Accessories for

Tractors, Motor Vehicles for the Transport of Ten or More Persons, . . .”
Fig. 11.15. Egypt and Tunisia Shares in Morocco’s Imports for HS

Code 8708: “Parts and Accessories for Tractors, Motor Vehicles for the
Transport of Ten or More Persons, . . .” (2001–2020). Source: Author’s
340 Sameh Hammad
Fig. 11.16. Egypt and Morocco Imports From Tunisia’s Exports of

HS Code 8708: “Parts and Accessories for Tractors, Motor Vehicles for the
Transport of Ten or More Persons, . . .” (2001–2020). Source: Author’s
manufactures in these countries. Morocco was the bigger winner of the three
countries after Agadir Agreement by integrating their wiring products into the
value chains of the European countries and especially France, and Morocco
achieved a continuous increase of its exports, reaching a peak of USD 2.156
billion in 2019 before its fall back in 2020 because of the worldwide impact of
COVID-19 on the global automotive industry (Fig. 11.17). Also, it is worth
mentioning the significance of this product exports to the total exports of
Morocco that reached 7.29% in the year 2019 (Fig. 11.18).
From a perspective of trade balances, we can figure out that all Agadir
countries are achieving almost positive trade balances for the whole last 20 years,
while only Morocco achieved a negative trade balance in 2007 before building its
industrial capabilities and swift rise up by its exports (Fig. 11.19). However, as we
previously mentioned about homogeneity of this product, adding on what we
figured from the positive trade balances, we can expect a minimal degree of
intratrade among the four countries, but we can see some timid trials from
Tunisia to export wirings to Morocco as the latest is considered the biggest car
manufacturing market among the four, such trials were directly after the imple-
mentation of the agreement, which could not be sustained, and again in the year
2018, which still cannot be assessed if it may continue or not as Tunisia was
ranked the 12th in Morocco’s suppliers as per the year 2020 (Fig. 11.20).
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
Fig. 11.17. Exports of HS Code 854430: “Ignition Wiring Sets and

Other Wiring Sets for Vehicles, Aircraft or Ships” (2001–2020) for Agadir
Countries. Source: Author’s calculations based on ITC Trade map (UN
COMTRADE Statistics).
8.00%
7.00%
6.00%
5.00%
4.00%
3.00%
2.00%
1.00%
0.00%
Fig. 11.18. Share to the Total Country Exports for HS Code 854430:
“Ignition Wiring Sets and Other Wiring Sets for Vehicles, Aircraft or Ships”
342 Sameh Hammad
2000
1500
1000
500
0
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
-500
Fig. 11.19. Trade Balance for HS Code 854430: “Ignition Wiring Sets
and Other Wiring Sets for Vehicles, Aircraft or Ships” (2001–2020) for
HS Code 700711: Toughened Tempered Safety Glass, of Size and Shape

Suitable for Incorporation in Motor Vehicles, Aircraft, Spacecraft, Vessels, and
Other Vehicles. Egypt achieved a remarkable increase in its exports for vehicles’
tempered glasses starting from 2008 to 2011 and reaching a peak of USD 35.744
million (Fig. 11.21), where almost 40% of these exports were heading to Morocco,
Tunisia, and Jordan. Unfortunately, the cooperation did not last longer and
gradually declined till reaching its minimum in 2020 (Fig. 11.22).
Egypt–Morocco Automotive Trade Dispute

The NTMs collide with the political wills for the success of the agreement. The
Egyptian market mainly imports Renault Logan from Morocco as it is exempted
from customs duties in accordance with the Agadir Agreement, which stipulates
that the customs duties on cars shall be lifted if 40% value is added in a member
country, which enabled that model to be one of the bestselling cars in Egypt. After
the Agadir Agreement got into force in 2007, Morocco announced that it will
export Renault Logan to Egypt in October 2008, then a delegation from Egypt’s
Ministry of Trade and Industry visited the Moroccan automotive factories in July
2007 and insured that more than 40% of the French car is manufactured in the
local factories, in accordance with the Agadir Agreement.
Fig. 11.20. Tunisia’s Exports to Morocco for HS Code 854430:

“Ignition Wiring Sets and Other Wiring Sets for Vehicles, Aircraft or Ships”
(2001–2020). Source: Author’s calculations based on ITC Trade map (UN
COMTRADE Statistics).
In the year 2015, Egypt refused the exports of Renault Logan model that was
manufactured in Tangier-Med factories claiming that free zones were not a part
of Agadir Agreement, and doubting that its products do not fulfill the minimum
requirements of the 40% local content and being eligible for the Moroccan origin,
but from the other side, Egypt was accepting the cars manufactured in other
344 Sameh Hammad
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
0
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
Fig. 11.21. Exports of HS Code 700711: “Toughened Tempered

Safety Glass, of Size and Shape Suitable for Incorporation in Motor Vehicles,
. . .” (2001–2020) for Agadir Countries. Source: Author’s calculations based
on ITC Trade map (UN COMTRADE Statistics).
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
Jordan Tunisia Morocco
Fig. 11.22. Egypt’s Exports of HS Code 700711: “Toughened

Tempered Safety Glass, of Size and Shape Suitable for Incorporation in
Motor Vehicles, . . .” to Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia (2001–2020). Source:
Author’s calculations based on ITC Trade map (UN COMTRADE
Statistics).
Moroccan automotive plants such as those in Casablanca. While Morocco was

insisting about their respect of fulfilling the requirements of local origin, they were
considering Egypt’s decision as a maneuver to introduce a technical obstacle and
thus limit car imports from Morocco. The issue was moreover widely debated
within the framework of the workshops on the Euro-Mediterranean rules of
origin organized by the Technical Unit of the Agadir Agreement (ATU). Lately,
at the beginning of the year 2022, Egypt has agreed with Morocco to use the
Moroccan Institute for Normalization (IMANOR) standards to revise all tech-
nical and nontechnical requirements and let its approved products directly into
the Egyptian market and without further inspections.
Discussion and Conclusion

Key Insights and Lessons Learnt
Industrial clusters are recognized by playing a significant role in regional eco-
nomic development, nations competitiveness, and improvements to quality of life.
Across all the world regions and cities, there is a growing specialization and
concentration of industries in response to increasing competition and GVC
outsourcing. This study tried to study the impact of the trade agreements on the
collaborative industrial efforts for multibeneficiaries countries, and the main
indicator for Agadir Agreement is to create and enhance the industrial cluster
approach of the four Arab countries and to be treated as one unit when exporting
their products to Europe; therefore, by extension, a better sourcing and a better
trade for industrial components will be created among the Arab countries and
some specialized subindustrial sectors will emerge to supply the other three
countries with the privilege of local component nature. Definitely, the automotive
sector is one of the most sophisticated sectors when it comes to outsourcing its
components and parts; the study focused on testing the trade impacts after the
agreement and how the four countries capitalized on the opportunity to build
their industrial bases and synergies of their resources into a jointly way rather
than separately.
According to the findings, the trade impact for the automotive industrial
products between Agadir countries was momentary, but unfortunately, it could
not last for more than couple of years before deteriorating back to humble levels.
But what we can figure is that those countries started to move independently and
directly with the EU to build their automotive industrial clusters backed by a
political will and clear national strategy to maximize the chances of the cluster
being able to be significantly promoted internationally, especially in the case of
Morocco, which is achieving remarkable milestones and being branded as a
strong automotive industrial hub to supply Europe and beyond. On the contrary,
there was no regional policy-driven initiative compiled with the efforts of Agadir
countries, which could be frankly related to the political instability faced by
Tunisia and Egypt just couple of years after the implementation on the
agreement.
346 Sameh Hammad
The new global trend of climate change adaptation imposed another respon-
sibility to industrial clusters to be net zero emissions through clean energy tran-
sition and building for effective industrial symbiosis within the cluster and
beyond. The nearshore industrial clusters of Agadir Agreement countries repre-
sent to Europe a solution and challenge. In June 2022, the EU Parliament
approved ban on new fossil fuel cars starting from the year 2035, meaning that all
EU cars manufacturers must shift their industrial manufacturing bases toward EV
manufacturing lines, the current production lines of internal combustion engine
cars could be transferred to the nearshore automotive industrial clusters, but
again, the climate change adaptation is a global combat and cannot be solved by
moving the problem from one place to another.
In general, the findings show limitations on the collaborative approach among
the industrial clusters in the four countries, despite relatively detached and
discrete success for each country in a specific segment and with independency
from industrial components or final products from the other countries. Building a
regional cross-countries industrial cluster is a very challenging process and
development tool despite economic incentives or even common and shared his-
tory, culture, language, etc.
Implications
The research question of this chapter was: How industrial clusters could be used
as a tool for regional economic development? The intersection between the
industrial clusters geography and global business literature has received relatively
little attention from scholars. The findings of this study can support policymakers’
decision-making processes to build their competitive advantages based on the
geographic proximity and regional cooperation to maximize the benefits much
more than the individual approach. Moreover, in terms of implementing regu-
lations, the present study has shown that policymakers may be harming the
clusters’ development by not sufficiently strategizing and regulating certain
aspects of the industrial sector.
On the other hand, the private sector MNCs may use the study findings to
understand the developments of the automotive sector in Agadir countries and
how it could be used for planning their global expansion strategies in such sen-
sitive and fateful transitional decade for the global automotive industry from
traditional engine consumption to hybrid and electrical vehicles. Therefore, the
study offers important insights into the possible nature of the impact of a
policy-driven cluster to policymakers and private sector.
Author’s Contribution
The introduction of the new concepts of “Cluster-o-meter” and “Technology
TAPE.” In addition to data analysis, interpretation, and visualizations for the
trade flows of Automotive industries in Agadir countries. The raw data
supporting the analysis and conclusions of this study will be made available by the
author, without undue reservation.
Potential Problems and Limitations

The analysis part of this study was based on the historical international trade data
for the last 20 years to figure out and illustrate the impact of Agadir Agreement
specifically in the years 2007 and 2008 and how the four countries benefited and
developed their industrial progress in the automotive industry whether vehicles or
parts. The study did not implement any statistical methods for analysis, and the
findings suggest that future research may benefit from a triangulation of these
simple methods. Valuable insights can be given and validated through compari-
son, and even if future research decides not to apply a multimethods approach,
the results given here highlighting the limitations and benefits of the research
processes can support the choice of methods for future research. Of course, the
context in which researchers work also has an impact, including limitations of
funding, time, access to data, and more. Different methods could give better
insights into different industry clusters, which should be further investigated in
future research.
Conclusion
Industrial clusters play a major role in establishing a network of regional col-
laborations and partnerships, where global competition had imposed a new
horizon of opportunities for complementing clusters, smart and fast supply
chains, and technology adoption for industrial clusters’ tenants, managements,
and policies. Cross-borders clusters will need the support of a unified regional
strategy to cater for their dynamics, distribution of actors along the value chain,
and their competitiveness. Conceptually, adjacent countries and regions will
almost have the same production factors and competitive advantages, which will
theoretically get rivalry competition on top of the list. On the contrary, the
complex mechanisms and dynamics involved in the development of successful and
resilience clusters grabbed the attention to the concept of “coopetition” and
understanding the similarities of the respective clusters’ eco-systems, related
framework conditions, and the clusters actors embedded in them. In this
perspective, clusters are considered vehicles transmitting innovation processes,
technological interventions, and connectivity applications such as Industry 4.0,
which could be initiated by national and regional strategies to the level of business
communities within the industrial clusters, and ultimately contribute to employ-
ment and jobs creation.
The regional integration with south Mediterranean countries that was initiated
by the European Union at the late of 1990s was very important for the European
Union’s future shifts to new industries and redistributing the industrial agglom-
eration of traditional industries. On the other hand, Arab countries on the
southern shore started to build their individual industrial competencies along the
348 Sameh Hammad
last two decades with more focuses on specific industrial sectors, as the case of
automotive sector in Morocco. We can also find success stories of chemicals and
petrochemical industries in Egypt, pharmaceutical industries in Jordan, and ICT
industries in Tunisia.
Regrettably, till now Agadir Agreement only achieved a shallow integration,
while failed to deeply integrate as one big collaborative industrial cluster and start
marketing the whole region as one unit for the GVCs. With no doubt, the Arab
Spring implications that started in 2011 hindered back the ambitious goals of the
agreement that require more real coordination between the industrial, investment,
and trade policies at the regional level in an operation that could be named
“leveraging up economies.” Comparable future research between the history of
the EU establishment and the progress in Agadir Agreement could be conducted
to benefit from the lessons learnt and start correcting the path for a deeper
industrial integration that could be a nucleus for a bigger Arab industrial union.
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Chapter 11

Industrial Clusters: Ambassadors for

Keywords: Industrial clusters; regional integration; global value chains; cross

Industry Clusters and Innovation in the Arab World, 309–351

This study attempts to generate important new insights into a phenomenon

Literature Review and Conceptual Frameworks

markets; and learning through dense and knowledge-rich environments that

to the local population. They are characterized by high degree of speciali-

United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) deﬁnes

Industrial Clusters: Developments, Dynamics, and Processes

If you want to go fast. Go Alone.

It is a matter of “collaboration” not just “cooperation,” and when we

Drivers for Industrial Clusters’ Competitiveness

Degree of Clustering (Cluster-o-Meter)

Fig. 11.1. Measuring the Degree of Clustering, “Cluster-o-Meter.”

Prerequisites for Clusters:

• Sector focus: Specialization and focusing on a certain sector or a value chain is

Physical Indicators for Clusters:

• Business/investors association: A legal entity and a physical space must exist to

• One-stop shop: Public and governmental services related to operational activ-

Soft Indicators for Clusters:

• Business development services (BDS): The frequency and degree of utilization

• Cluster branding and public relations: Developing a cluster’s communication

Technology TAPE (Transfer, Adoption, Production, and Export)

(1) Technology transfer:

value add here starts by research, development, and innovation to enhance

Based on the connectivity concept of the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Regional Industrial Clusters: In Theory and Practice

Fig. 11.2. Technology TAPE. Source: Author’s illustration.

strongly intertwined. A regional innovation strategy typically relies on existing

• Regional adaptive capacity of industry: This means whether local enterprises

According to the Guidebook series (2016), collaboration across regional

development itself, is a long-term process. Many cluster internationalization

Union for the Mediterranean

According to Wippel (2005), the organizational structure of the agreement

• Implantation of the European OEMs in the southern industrial bases of Agadir

Agreement Clauses Related to Industrial Goods

balance of payments, or the threat of such, it may take appropriate measures in

Remarkable Operational Milestones in Agadir Trade Agreement

(1) Regional study on the opportunities of complementarity and partnership in

commercial relations, beneﬁt from origin accumulation, and work on available

Case Study: Automotive Industries Sector in Agadir Countries

Fig. 11.3. Total Exports of Agadir Countries (2001–2020). Source:

Fig. 11.4. Automation in Industrial Countries has Boosted Imports

• Boosting trade between the Agadir Agreement countries in terms of compo-

The automotive industry requires a complex set of components and materials

(1) Extensive integration: It is more regarding a quantity approach focusing on

There is a potential for regional value chains in automotive industry regarding

policies, investing in feeding industries, using more regional production inputs,

Automotive Sector in Morocco

Morocco’s automotive industry has become the country’s leading exporter

Automotive Sector in Tunisia

• Ben Arous industrial zone: It is considered the largest Tunisian automotive

Analyzing Trade Flows and Methodological Approach

HS Code 8702 Motor vehicles for the transport of ten or more

Passengers Cars and Commercial Vehicles

Fig. 11.5. Exports of HS Code 8702: “Motor Vehicles for the

Egypt Jordan Morocco Tunisia

Fig. 11.7. Egypt’s Shares of the Imports of the HS Code 8702: