The two projects are expected to boost bilateral trade, which currently stands at just over $200 million a year, despite the enormous potential of the two neighboring countries.

On Thursday February 22, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and his Mauritanian counterpart Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani laid the foundation stone for a free trade zone and an 840 km road link to boost trade between the two countries.

On this occasion, Mr. Tebboune declared that this free zone located in the border wilaya of Tindouf (east of Algeria) offers tax and customs advantages to Algerian and Mauritanian economic operators.

"Mauritanian goods and merchandise of clear origin are welcome and will be tax-exempt, as will Algerian products", he stressed, inviting economic operators to "invest in the free zone and take advantage of tax and customs exemptions for commercial and industrial exchanges between the two countries".

On February 13, 2024, the Algerian president had already announced the creation of free trade zones between Algeria and five bordering African countries - Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Libya and Tunisia - during the current year, with a view to strengthening regional economic integration.

Often located on the border between two countries, a free trade zone is an enclosed area dedicated to duty-free trade, offering warehousing, storage and distribution facilities. It also enables industrial companies to benefit from certain tax exemptions.

The Algerian and Mauritanian leaders also kicked off the construction of a road linking Tindouf to the Mauritanian town of Zouerate, which will be 840 km long.

The agreement to build this road was signed in December 2021, on the sidelines of the state visit to Algeria by Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani.

The road project will be carried out by a dozen Algerian companies, according to the official Algerian press agency APS. M.M Tebboune and El Ghazouani also inaugurated two fixed border crossings between Algeria and Mauritania.

Trade between Algiers and Nouakchott does not exceed 200 million dollars a year, despite the enormous potential of both countries, according to data published last September by the Algerian Ministry of Trade and Export Promotion.

Agence Ecofin