Prachanda Man Shrestha heads the WTO cell at the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and has been at the forefront of Nepal's negotiations with bilateral partners before entering the global trade regime. He explains to the Nepali Times how difficult that job is.

Nepali Times: Where are we in the process of getting into the WTO?
Prachandra Man Shrestha: Since we were not a founder member of the General Agreement on Trade and Tariff (GATT), we had to finalise the terms of the WTO membership with each member. That took a lot of time. Even after we submitted the complete document in 1998, it took us four years to get through the formalities. After the bilateral meetings in Geneva in 2003, the protocol of accession was ready. Our accession to the WTO was unanimously endorsed by all 146 countries in the fifth WTO ministerial meet in Cancun of Mexico. We were given the deadline till 31 March to endorse or ratify the WTO package we have received. Since last September, we have carried out a public debate on the package we have received. So far, no one has called it a bad deal.

But we don't have a parliament to ratify the deal.
Our constitution has a provision for making laws in absence of the House of Representatives and we have done so in the past 14 years. In case of WTO, if we are required to join it within a certain deadline, we can bring the ordinance accordingly. But we have been cautious enough not to hamper the democratic system. If the House of Representatives, after it comes into being, finds that the WTO package was not the right deal, it can still take action. The ratification had to be done through the amendment because we have the 31 March deadline. If we fail to do so, we will be putting our country's credibility at stake.

But the politicians have been saying the amendment was unconstitutional and that ratification could have been done through the Upper House.
Despite the provision in the Treaty Act, we could not get the ratification done through the House of Representatives because it is not there right now. But we are running out of time for ratification. After intensive discussion with legal professionals, we decided to make the amendment in the Treaty Act through ordinance so that ratification is possible. The additional clause in the Act will be applicable only in case international organisations join, which have to be multilateral and that means only the WTO. The amendment also has a mandatory provision that we notify the House of Representatives within seven days of its formation about the changes made. If dates for elections are announced, this provision will be null and void. That is how we have tried to maintain the spirit of the Act and the constitution.

How exactly does Nepal benefit from being a member?
In very simple language, we are now part of a permanent international trade system. The WTO also enhances the capacities of least developed countries and using its resources the WTO can improve service delivery so business becomes more competitive. There will be stability in policies under the WTO framework. Least Developed Countries (LDC's) have suffered from unstable policies and that has scared off investors.

But WTO is under fire for being unfair to poor countries.
In any international organisation, countries of similar status do lobby for their own interests. WTO is no exception. In the last few years, we have seen that developed and developing countries have been voicing their respective interests. We believe compromise is possible. Of course, there are many debatable and arguable issues within the WTO. But, there is no better institution at the global level. Therefore, we have got to try to maximise benefits of membership, we can't do without it.

Does that mean we will have to rely on others?
In Cancun last September, a group of developing countries could speak against what they claimed the cartel of developed countries for their interests. There is a separate sub-committee of the least developed countries. It has put forth the common demands and requirements of LDCs. If we were out of WTO, we could have never done that.

The private sector says the government is not capable of handling WTO membership by itself.
That is a valid observation. In WTO negotiations, the government is supposed to represent the country and the private sector cannot take part directly. Therefore, there has to be a private-government linkage. So far, we have been taking the suggestions of the private sector and other stakeholders on an ad hoc basis. We need to develop a permanent mechanism for such input to be raised at the WTO.