Approximately 55% of trade is with the European Union, and Tunisia’s most significant free-trade agreement is the Association Agreement on industrial goods with the EU, which was formally ratified in 1996. A free-trade zone with the EU was effectively implemented in 2008 after a gradual lowering of tariffs to zero over a 12-year period.
Tunisia has signed several agreements to facilitate trade and guarantee investments and trade in goods. The 2024 Agadir Agreement, a framework agreement with Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco, allows free trade among signatory countries. Tunisia has separate bilateral free trade agreements with Algeria and Libya, but trade with Algeria is still low and trade with Libya has dropped precipitously since 2011. Algeria and Libya accounted for only 5.4% and 1.8% of total trade, respectively, in 2024.
Tunisia is also a member of the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), which consists of Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. Although mainly a political organization, the AMU nominally allows duty-free trade among members, but some barriers to trade remain. In 2019, Tunisia’s Parliament ratified the country’s official accession to the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), a joint free-trade area with 20 member states stretching from Libya to Swaziland. In 2020, Tunisia ratified the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement; AfCFTA represents largest free-trade area in the world in terms of the number of participating countries (54) and facilitates access to 1.2 billion consumers on the continent. Tunisia is also seeking membership in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
Although Tunisia and Libya agreed in 2010 to remove all administrative and financial obstacles that hinder the movement of goods and people, subsequent political upheaval has disrupted progress.