Prospects for future economic integration among the League of Arab States

The League of Arab States (LAS) was formed in 1945 with the objective of unifying the Arab countries through political, educational, cultural and economic cooperation. In its efforts to expand the traditional focus of attention beyond political issues, it has placed an equally important attention...

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Main Authors:	Hamid, Zarinah, Mohd Amin, Ruzita, Md Saad, Norma
Format:	Conference or Workshop Item
Language:	English
Published:	2008
Subjects:	HC94 By region or country
Online Access:	http://irep.iium.edu.my/24427/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/24427/1/prospects_for_future_economic_integration.pdf

id	iium-24427
recordtype	eprints
spelling	iium-244272012-06-27T02:40:53Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/24427/ Prospects for future economic integration among the League of Arab States Hamid, Zarinah Mohd Amin, Ruzita Md Saad, Norma HC94 By region or country The League of Arab States (LAS) was formed in 1945 with the objective of unifying the Arab countries through political, educational, cultural and economic cooperation. In its efforts to expand the traditional focus of attention beyond political issues, it has placed an equally important attention on economic matters whereby the Economic and Social Council of the League adopted resolution No. 1317 of the 1980 Amman Summit declaring the establishment of a Pan-Arab Free Trade Area. In the light of this recent development, it is therefore, important to first investigate whether or not the LAS possesses the necessary prerequisites for a successful regional trade arrangement. This paper examines the trade structure among five LAS members, namely Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Oman by analyzing their dynamic exports as well as their "trade concentration", and "trade divergence" profiles between the years 1990 and 2003. In general, the findings indicate that the eXisting trade structure may not facilitate intra-regional trade among LAS members. Divergence estimates indicate that only Jordan shows prospects for greater regional exports while the prospects for Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Syria do not appear to be encouraging. Except for Jordan, exports are found to be highly concentrated especially for Saudi Arabia and Syria. Therefore, based on the findings there is a need for these countries to realign their trade policies in order to promote a more favorable environment for the creation of the Pan-Arab Free Trade Area. 2008 Conference or Workshop Item PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/24427/1/prospects_for_future_economic_integration.pdf Hamid, Zarinah and Mohd Amin, Ruzita and Md Saad, Norma (2008) Prospects for future economic integration among the League of Arab States. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Globalization in the 21st Century, 21-22 April 2008, Bahrain.
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	International Islamic University Malaysia
building	IIUM Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English
topic	HC94 By region or country
spellingShingle	HC94 By region or country Hamid, Zarinah Mohd Amin, Ruzita Md Saad, Norma Prospects for future economic integration among the League of Arab States
description	The League of Arab States (LAS) was formed in 1945 with the objective of unifying the Arab countries through political, educational, cultural and economic cooperation. In its efforts to expand the traditional focus of attention beyond political issues, it has placed an equally important attention on economic matters whereby the Economic and Social Council of the League adopted resolution No. 1317 of the 1980 Amman Summit declaring the establishment of a Pan-Arab Free Trade Area. In the light of this recent development, it is therefore, important to first investigate whether or not the LAS possesses the necessary prerequisites for a successful regional trade arrangement. This paper examines the trade structure among five LAS members, namely Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Oman by analyzing their dynamic exports as well as their "trade concentration", and "trade divergence" profiles between the years 1990 and 2003. In general, the findings indicate that the eXisting trade structure may not facilitate intra-regional trade among LAS members. Divergence estimates indicate that only Jordan shows prospects for greater regional exports while the prospects for Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Syria do not appear to be encouraging. Except for Jordan, exports are found to be highly concentrated especially for Saudi Arabia and Syria. Therefore, based on the findings there is a need for these countries to realign their trade policies in order to promote a more favorable environment for the creation of the Pan-Arab Free Trade Area.
format	Conference or Workshop Item
author	Hamid, Zarinah Mohd Amin, Ruzita Md Saad, Norma
author_facet	Hamid, Zarinah Mohd Amin, Ruzita Md Saad, Norma
author_sort	Hamid, Zarinah
title	Prospects for future economic integration among the League of Arab States
title_short	Prospects for future economic integration among the League of Arab States
title_full	Prospects for future economic integration among the League of Arab States
title_fullStr	Prospects for future economic integration among the League of Arab States
title_full_unstemmed	Prospects for future economic integration among the League of Arab States
title_sort	prospects for future economic integration among the league of arab states
publishDate	2008
url	http://irep.iium.edu.my/24427/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/24427/1/prospects_for_future_economic_integration.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T20:36:37Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T20:36:37Z
_version_	1777409088089489408

Prospects for future economic integration among the League of Arab States

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