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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Mauritania
Index
Senegal River ferry at Rosso
Courtesy Larry Barrie
Loading iron ore at Nouadhibou
Courtesy Embassy of Mauritania, Washington
At independence, Mauritania traded mostly with its African
neighbors. In 1961 almost 75 percent of the country's exports--
then primarily livestock--went to Senegal and Mali. Imports of
modern consumer goods came principally from France, moving
through the ports of Senegal before transshipment to Mauritania.
With the emergence of the iron industry and of large-scale
development projects in Mauritania, this picture changed. In the
1960s and 1970s, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany),
Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and France imported
most of Mauritania's iron ore. By the 1980s, as fishing exports
increased, Western Europe became less important as a market for
Mauritania's exports. Among industrial countries, which in 1986
took around 90 percent of the country's recorded exports, Japan
received 28 percent, Italy 24.6 percent, Belgium 15.8 percent,
and France 14.7 percent. The rise in Japan's portion of
Mauritania's exports reflected both a diversification in iron ore
customers and Japan's appetite for fish.
Since independence, France has remained Mauritania's most
important supplier. In 1964 France provided 54 percent of the
country's imports. That percentage dropped to 39 percent in 1969
and to 22 percent in 1981 but rose again to about 30 percent in
1985. Between 1981 and 1985, Spain, West Germany, and the United
States also were important suppliers. Developing countries
provided between 23 and 27 percent of Mauritania's imports
between 1981 and 1985, of which African countries supplied as
much as 15 percent.
Data as of June 1988
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