Challenges of “On Terms to Be Agreed” in WTO: LDC’s Experiences for Ethiopian

Ethiopia has been in the process of accession to the WTO since January 2003. Accession to the WTO is not an end by itself but it’s a key element for speed up national development goal directly or indirectly. Indeed, lessons from recently accessed countries indicate that, the WTO accession process is quit complex and demands well preparation in order to take decisions on trade policy reforms to meet the requirement of accession. Thus, this article examines the experience of Least Developed Countries which has been finalized their WTO accession process i.e. Cambodia, Nepal, and Yemen. Finally, the article has found that, in toting up to personal knowledge and skill of negotiators, Ethiopia shall bargain after deep studies on the commitment packages to reduce possible challenges and to prepare for remedy by formalizing institutional mechanisms open for stakeholder’s participation. Key terms: WTO Accession Process, Experiences of LDC’s, Ethiopia Accession DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/86-02 Publication date:June 30th 201

Competitiveness of Nepalese ready-made garments after expiry of the Agreements on Textiles and Clothing

The study examines what has been the export performance of the RMG industry in Nepal in the post-ATC period with a focus on the United States market? and how has the expiry of the ATC impacted Nepal's competitiveness in RMG exports in the United States market?Competitivenss, Reagy-made garments, Agreements on Textiles and Clothing, Nepal

Death of an Industry: Cultural Politics of Garment Manufacturing During the Maoist Revolution in Nepal

Dr Mallika Shakya’s scholarly contributions on industrial development dynamics in Nepal, the focus of her work being Nepal’s apparel sector (which evolved in early-1980s with the introduction of the Multifibre Agreement or the MFA), are well-known to most Nepal as well as South Asia scholars. Shakya has a longstanding and commendable engagement with not just Nepal’s apparel sector—and the institutional dynamics that govern it—but also with Nepal’s broader political economy of development. Several dimensions in Shakya’s scholarship are not only noteworthy and important but also exceptional, in part, due to the methodological approaches and interdisciplinarity that enables, inter alia, credible grounding into the context. Built on political economy frameworks—inspiration being disciplines such as anthropology and economic sociology—and principal empirical strategy being ethnography-based grounded case-studies, the publication under review here unpacks the interface of domestic and transnational politics with practices of, not only, firms but important spatio-institutional structures (relevant to industrialization) such as labour unions, bureaucracy, business associations, political parties and global retailers downstream in the apparel production network. At the risk of oversimplification, the publication analyzes how Nepal’s apparel sector evolved with the MFA and how politics within and beyond borders impacted its development and performance. The rich empirical and archival insights presented across seven chapters are a major departure from the narrow and abstract formulations coming from much of the existing industrialization literature on Nepal, produced predominantly by IFI-affiliated or commissioned (IFI or International Financial Institutions) economists. For instance, the existing industrialization literature— looking at production dynamics from, for instance, the production function lens—informs little on the production dynamics such as its governance, organization and networks. Moreover, the existing formulations pay no attention to important elements in production such as production capabilities and that such capabilities are learnt and acquired via credible policy tools. Unsurprisingly, mainstream economics has been critiqued to not have credible analytical tools to assess important aspects of production and industrialization dynamics. Other gaps in the existing apparel sector analysis on Nepal—owing significantly to deployment of narrow analytical frames—pertain to the emphasis on supply-side constraints (that hinder progress in industrialization) and somewhat problematic empirics including in analyzing apparel sector performance. On the empirical analysis front, an important limitation that the book addresses is supplementing the rather unreliable and limited published data on Nepal’s apparel sector—an issue valid for much of the Global South—with extensive ethnographic fieldwork; spaces being firms, labour unions and business associations. In this backdrop and given the methodological approaches and interdisciplinarity, the book has significantly greater explanatory power in unpacking the industrial development dynamics; more so, in the case of backward developing countries

Book-review India's Long Road: The Search for Prosperity

What policies and policy reforms can put India on the path of rapid and sustained economic growth and hence prosperity (defined in this work as average incomes close to Portugal’s and where national income is widely shared to ensure reasonable living standards for the poorest)? The analytical lenses coming from neoclassical economics—predictable given Dr Joshi’s training and subsequent affiliations—the book delves into, not only the probable explanations underlying India’s suboptimal economic growth and development performance, but also outlines the required policy initiatives to improve economic and social development outcomes. Several reforms suggested, such as in public health, are indeed critically impending ones (Chapter 9)

Unveiling Protectionism: Regional Responses to Remaining Barriers in the Textiles and Clothing Trade

this chapter focuses on textile and clothing sector in boosting industrialization in developing countries.Textile and clothing industry, post-quota world

Perception of and Adaption Capacities to Climate Change Adaption Strategies by the Rice Farmers: A Case of Rajshahi District in Bangladesh

This paper evaluates rice farmers’ perception and climatic variability using climate record. Adaptive capacities of rice farmers to climate change adaption strategies for the Rajshahi district were also identified. Forty two years of climate data on temperature and rainfall (1972-2013) from the Bangladesh Metrological Department (BMD) for Rajshahi weather station were collected and analyzed using non-parametric Mann-Kendall test. Questionnaire survey was conduct to understand farmers’ perception and adaptations in response to changing climate and variability. The results revealed that an increase in annual temperature of +0.04º C form 1972 to 2013 has be recorded for the Rajshahi district, Bangladesh, whereas annual rainfall has not exhibited any trend but Sen’s slope is negative for rainfall implies decreasing trend with time. The adaptive capacities of rice farmers were estimated quantitatively and categorized into high, moderate and low adaptive capacities. Result of adaptive capacities revealed that on the average the farmers’ interviewed are moderately adaptive to climate change. As high adaptive farmers obtain higher amount of rice therefore, the more a farmer has the ability to adjust to climate change, the more the amount of rice he or she obtain. Rice farmers should be empowered through better extension services in order to attain high adaptive capacity status so as to help them obtain more rice output. Keywords: Adaptive Capacities, Adaptive Strategies, Climate Change, Farmers’ perceptions, Rajshahi District, Bangladesh

Ethiopia’s accession to the world trade organisation: lessons from acceded least developing countries

This article examines the experiences of least developing countries (LDCs) acceded to World Trade Organisation (WTO) in relation to their accession process, terms of accession and implementation of commitments with a view to drawing lessons which could be relevant to Ethiopia to devise successful strategies and avoid mistakes in an effort to gain maximum benefits from its WTO membership. Given that accession to the WTO is not an end in itself, Ethiopia should carefully and strategically negotiate to reap the potential benefits of membership in light of its long-term development strategies.Keywords: WTO Accession, LDCs, Ethiopi

Labor and Grassroots Civic Interests In Regional Institutions

here is a vibrant regional civil society in Asia with numerous civil society organizations (CSOs) advancing a range of economic, political and social causes using three key strategies, namely regional advocacy, civil society parallel summits, and civil society partnerships with states and regional institutions. Although regional institutions have become more willing to engage with non-elite or grassroots civil society and labor groups, business networks are still privileged in institutional processes. Consequently, regional institutions fail to tap the information and knowledge resources of CSOs to enhance the quality of regional institutional governance, defined as the effectiveness of governance institutions as well as their accountability to stakeholders. The paper outlines three interrelated strategies to correct this deficit. First, regional institutions should provide and safeguard a regional ―public sphere‖ in which officials and a variety of CSOs, not just those sharing official views, can engage each other in reasoned discussion. Second, regional institutions should develop more formalized or regularized mechanisms (as opposed to ad hoc or informal measures) through which CSOs can submit research reports, position papers, and comments on the various items on the regional institutional agenda, particularly on new agreements. The Asian Development Bank‘s NGO and Civil Society Center offers one institutional model. Third, regional institutions should establish formal accountability mechanisms such as a formal complaints procedure through which stakeholders and their CSO representatives can bring claims against regional institutions as well as internal and independent evaluation mechanisms.civil society; non-governmental organizations (NGOs); regional institutions; governance; accountability