Mister

Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Review

Vol. 3, No. 2, December 2007

Lessons from Kyrgyzstan’s
WTO Experience for Kazakhstan,
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan
Richard Pomfret*

ABSTRACT

K

yrgyzstan’s swift WTO accession in 1998 reflected the importance of policy coherence. The Kyrgyz application moved quickly because there was little problem incorporating the small economy into the WTO rule-based global economy. The main obstacle in other Central Asian countries’ WTO accession negotiations has been the reservations of WTO members regarding the applicants’ commitment to a market-based economy, and the reluctance of Uzbekistan,
Kazakhstan and Tajikistan to compromise the non-market and discretionary elements of their economic systems. The nexus between trade policy and domestic policy reform is especially vital for landlocked countries because the negative impact on trade costs of inadequate domestic reform and the failure to recognize WTO rules reinforce the disadvantaged trade position due to geography. For Kyrgyzstan, early
WTO accession caused no harm, and although it would have benefited from its neighbours’ concurrent accession, there was no first-mover disadvantage to the country. The main lesson from the Kyrgyz WTO experience is that WTO offers a rule-based system with added benefits (access to the dispute resolution mechanism and a seat at the WTO negotiating table) whose importance depends upon circumstances. The added benefits are likely to be more important to Kazakhstan, which has suffered from anti-dumping duties imposed on its steel exports, and to
Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, which suffer from the cotton policies of WTO members, than they have been to Kyrgyzstan.
*

Associate Dean (research) and Professor of economics, School of Economics, University of Adelaide,
SA 5005, Australia, e-mail: [e-mail]. Any errors are the responsibility of the author; the views expressed are those of the author and

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