This research is an exploratory study of the financialand accounting context of an emerging country, Tunisia, in order to analyzequalitatively both de jure and de facto international accounting harmonization,in this country basically used to a continental accounting tradition. Our target is to find out how straightforward it is for such acountry to switch to the Anglo-Saxon accounting culture and get into theinternational accounting harmonization. A review of some related work in theliterature was examined. Then, a qualitative study based on semi-directiveinterviews with Tunisian CPAs was pursued in order to evaluate the accountingharmonization de jure and de facto in Tunisia, thirteen years after the switchin 1997 from a General Accounting Plan to the new Accounting System. The results show that, in the present, inspite of de jure harmonization efforts, particularly shown by the Tunisianaccounting system, widely inspired by the international one, professionalsmaintain that those efforts are insufficient. In fact, on one hand, the newsystem includes lacunas in comparison with international standards, and on theother hand even when Tunisian accounting standards are perfectly harmonizedwith the international ones, accounting practices do not follow. This is due tonumerous pressures, notably cultural and juridical, that prevent the success inTunisia of de facto harmonization.