Ethiopia's Accession to the WTO and the Telecom Sector: Can Ethiopia Accede without Liberalization?
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Date
2014-05
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Ethiopia has applied for membership of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and
its accession process is currently in progress. Despite this, the country is referring
some service sectors, like the telecom, as untouchable and, as a result, their
liberalization seems improbable. This dissertation is therefore intended to inspect
the county 's policy position on telecom liberalization and the implications such
policy has at the WTO fora. Conceming service liberalization, there are in fact
WTO laws that allow flexibility for Least Developed Countries (LDCs) to maintain
their domestic policy autonomy to certain extent. However, a careful look at
accession processes and telecom commitments experience of some recently
acceded countries are antithesis to these WTO credos. Though Ethiopia has not
submitted its initial service offer and a bilateral negotiation has not commenced
yet, it has been told by some WTO Member countries to reconsider its policy on the
telecom sector. The research, thus, examines the possibility for Ethiopia to accede
to the organization while still sticking to its current policy position. To such end, it
came to conclusion that it is hardly possible for the countly to join the
organization while keeping the status quo.
Key words: Ethiopia, World Trade Organization (WTO), Telecommunication,
Liberali zation, Least Developed Countries (LDCs)
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Keywords
Ethiopia, World Trade Organization (WTO),, Telecommunication, Liberali zation,, Least Developed Countries (LDCs)