Addis Tribune (Addis Ababa)
A Staff Reporter
23 January 2004
A trade memorandum document depicting Ethiopia's trade and trade-related policies, strategies, rules and regulations development would be submitted to World Trade Organization (WTO) before the end of March this year.
In an exclusive interview with Addis Tribune, Ato Girma Birru, Minister of Trade and Industry, said the draft trade memorandum document with at its final stage. "In my judgment, the document might be submitted to the ministerial committee in less than four week's time and if my plan goes right we will be able to submit the document to the cabinet before the first quarter of 2004 and then to WTO for distribution among member countries."
He added, "Our capacity in terms of supply of goods for WTO is limited and we also have low capacity for negotiations. We have to address constraints for supply and we have to increase our capacity for negotiations"
Ethiopia has an observer status at the WTO since October 1997, subsequently renewed in May 2002. " During these periods the government of Ethiopia has exerted every effort to acquaint and familiarize itself with the WTO agreements and the working of the Multilateral Trading System as well as enhancing its negotiating. The Government also had commissioned a study to access the full implications of the WTO agreements on Ethiopia's economic policy and strategies," the Minister said
In order to create awareness among different stakeholders, the Minister said, two national workshops were organized in 1998 and 1999 in collaboration with WTO and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) respectively. " Despite these efforts, our institutional capacity to deal with the complex WTO agreements is not yet enhanced to the desirable level. We, therefore, believe that, among others, technical assistance from our development partners should cover both the understanding of the WTO agreements and all phases of the accession process," he said
The WTO membership today stands at 148 countries. A total of 170 countries are expected to join in the next two decades.
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