Ethiopia's Accession To The Wto: The Role Of Private Actors

Abstract

Ethiopia submitted its formal request for accession WTO in January 2003. So far working party was established and four meetings are conducted, but the progress of the legislative, institutional and policy frameworks are very slow or do not exist in specific cases of private actors role in the process. The National Committee entrusted with negotiating the accession process is neither inclusive of private actors nor transparent about its obligations. The committee lacks members from the private actors, namely the business community, private sector, and CSOs that represents real concerns of the private sector. WTO accession under this context affects the offensive and defensive interest of private sector which in turn hurts the country’s economy With the objective examining hoe to enhance the role of private actors in the Ethiopia’s WTO accession, the research tries to deal with this issue based on qualitative policy analysis using of the already existing documents and other reference material to collect relevant data that can likely be used in the research. The finding of the research from a comparative analysis of the existing private sector policies and accession activities vis‐à‐vis the principles and practices of WTO suggests that there are different policies in the private sector systems that are incompatible with the requirements of the GATT, GATS, and the practices in trade negotiations. Accession process to WTO and undertaking any commitment require the existence of inclusive and transparent National Committee and strong regulatory organs. Finally recommendations for amendments and revisions are made on policy areas governing the private actors role in the accession process and on the composition of National Committee. Consultation on every accession steps, including worker party meetings, with representatives of all private actors is recommended. It is also highly recommendable to make sure that the private actors are accessing the newly established WTO Resource Center to enhance transparency problems