Arab Economic Integration: Current Reality and Future Prospects

Despite repeated efforts to promote the integration of their markets, mutual trade between Arab countries remains very limited. This can be explained and understood against a set of physical, political and economic factors, regarded as formidable obstacles to the promotion of economic integration. Given the present economic environment, it is suggested that what Arab countries need most is not economic integration, but more and better education, less state-imposed distortions, and therefore more efficient utilization of their resources. Economic integration should then follow. Analyzing the impediments to economic integration should transcend the oversimplification of current realities to acknowledge the facts of a more complex situation.