An Evaluation of the Terms of Accession to the World Trade Organization : A Comparative Assessment of Services and Goods Sector Commitments by WTO Members and Acceding Countries

The relevant provisions for accession to the WTO do not provide an adequate legal basis for the process.

Its inherent flaws have resulted in demands on acceding countries which are invariably onerous and bear little or no relation to their size, significance or development status.

This book uses econometric tools to conduct a comparative assessment of commitments in the goods and services sectors.

For the services sector, the authors find that at all three levels of services classification the commitments of post-Uruguay Round acceding countries far exceed those of their WTO member counterparts.

In the goods sector, apart from the much greater binding coverage rate, the bound tariff rate for acceding countries is much lower than their WTO member counterparts.

The book also provides country specific commitment comparisons after controlling for the level of economic development of the countries.

In conclusion, the authors make brief recommendations for reform of the process of accession, in light of the costs incurred by applicant countries in the process.