Are we really ready for WTO ?

Although Nepal’s accession to the WTO looks more than likely to be a done deal within the next year or so, there are concerns that a lack of adequate domestic rules and regulations to face the challenges of the global market place is bound to take its toll on the country’s economy in the future. Despite government claims that the homework needed for Nepal’s accession to the WTO is satisfactory, it has so far neglected to strengthen the country’s legal framework which is necessary for warding off the challenges posed by the global rules based trading system.

As such, the government, until now, has concentrated only on issues relating to binding tariffs and other secondary requirements at the global level failing abysmally, on the domestic front, to formulate laws that are necessary to protect the country from the impending economic invasion. Nepal’s failure to strengthen its domestic rules and regulations is an indication of its short – sightedness in the way it is handling its WTO accession process.

Some experts opine that Nepal still lacks effective guidelines for the protection of farmers’ right, has no code on competition and has no law to prevent patenting of indigenous technologies and bio-diversity by foreign firms. Furthermore, Nepal lacks anti – dumping act and countervailing duty, which is bound to put the nation at a disadvantage once it obtains WTO membership.

It seems that the responsible authority wants to project the country’s accession to the WTO as a big event and term it a remarkable achievement for the nation’s economy. The reality is that even if we don’t have membership trade will be there. In the event of non-membership only we may miss the opportunity to grab some favours.

Finally, Nepal neither has financial nor technical, nor human resources to implement the demanding provisions of some of the WTO agreements. Therefore, it will not be out of place to already start demanding for technical assistance from the developed countries so that those provisions could be implemented in letter and spirit.

No matter to what ever extent authorities are beating the drum of preparedness, Nepal is not yet fully prepared to obtain the membership of the WTO. However, the preparation from the side of the concerned authority namely, Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies is to be very much appreciated. The openness and inclusiveness with which the ministry has come out is definitely laudable. But due to the lack of inter-ministerial coordination, impact-minimizing measures have not yet been put in place. Since time is literally flying, we cannot afford to wait any longer.

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