Will Bhutan join the World Trade Organization? The question has been asked ever since the new government took over in 2008, and BHUTAN TODAY has found that the answer is around the corner.
“I expect the government to take a decision soon,” Lyonpo Khandu Wangchuk, the Minster for Economic Affairs said in response.
Bhutan applied for membership to WTO in 1999 under the previous government, after which a working party was established to carry out negotiation processes.
Bilateral market access negotiations are ongoing on the basis of revised offers in goods and services. The multilateral examination of the foreign trade regime is ongoing and a draft Working Party Report was circulated in December 2007.
The last rounds of negotiations had taken place in July 2008.
“When the new government took over, it felt the need to examine the case more thoroughly in keeping with the development philosophy of Bhutan, especially the philosophy of Gross National Happiness,” Lyonpo Khandu Wangchuk said.
“The government asked the Ministry of Economic Affairs to hold more consultations to look into the matter. A stakeholder discussion that included public representatives, civil servants and parliamentarians, was held in 2008, and the government is now weighing the pros and the cons,” he added.
Sources involved closely with the negotiation process say that the negotiations had reached an advanced stage, and that if they had continued, perhaps by this time, Bhutan would have already become a member of WTO.
The delay, they say, may cause the negotiation process in future to lengthen, in case the government decides to join the WTO after all. A concern voiced by many was that the delay would cause the negotiations to lie dormant, and for other parties to change their terms of negotiations, as whatever that has been agreed upon in the negotiation is not binding until it has been signed.
Those who argue against Bhutan joining WTO say that the organisation represents ‘globalisation’, and therefore, is against the guiding development philosophy of Bhutan: GNH. Others argue that Bhutan must control its economic policies exclusively and should not be bound to international obligations which may compromise the pillars of GNH such as environment and culture.
However, those arguing in favour of joining the WTO say that the perceived risks are due to a lack of understanding of the WTO, and that Bhutan is already a member of regional trade agreements which have similar rules. Joining the WTO would, they say, result in economic reforms which would be necessary to meet international standards, and that it would also give credibility, encouraging prospective investors to invest in Bhutan.
By Dipika Chhetri in Thimphu
