Booming Sino-Maghreb Economic Relations: Incentives for a New European Partnership

Relations between China and African countries are getting better known even if sub-Saharan Africa is more often documented than Maghreb. The organisation of strikes by Algerians workers employed by Chinese firms or the repatriation of Chinese workers from building sites in Libya has been widely reported. On the other hand, little is said about the part China might effectively play in the economy of Maghreb countries and about the diversity of the situations of these countries in their economic relations with China. Even less is said about whether Chinese presence in Maghreb might foster the emergence of a new and more balanced partnership between European countries and Maghreb countries and promote new European co-operation governance. To address this issue I shall bring together statistics published by international institutions (UNCTAD and Eurostat) and by China statistical services to assess the forces involved and the actual part played by each actor. Successively, I shall attend to the question of the foreign direct investment to Maghreb countries, and then I shall deal with the exports of goods from Maghreb countries and imports of Chinese goods by these countries. Finally I shall examine whether China is actually contending European Union countries in Maghreb and to which extent this state of affairs might promote a new partnership and co-operation governance.