The chances of Egypt integrating into the multilateral trading system are slightly on the upside, writes Gamal Nkrumah Now everybody is at it. Everyone is attempting to get acquainted with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) -- the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) established at the end of World War II. So why not the Egyptian business community? The rules of the trading system world and the complexities of the controversial issues they conjure up are often baffling and notoriously difficult to evaluate and analyse. Conventional valuation tools are blunted by the lack of transparency by government negotiators, and a reluctance to share information complicates matters. The lack of specialised think-tanks only compounds the problems. These were some of the issues raised at the first seminar on the WTO and the private sector in Egypt organised by the Trade-Related Assistance Centre (TRAC) affiliated to the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt (AmCham). The unprecedented meeting discussed pertinent trading topics that impact the private sector such as anti-dumping, countervailing duties to halt abusive practices and the Dispute Settlement Mechanism (DSM) which WTO member countries are entitled to resort to if and when other countries breach any articles of an agreement under WTO regulations. "The multilateral trading system has changed dramatically since the Uruguay Round. Until then developing countries hardly participated in negotiations. Most of them were not even members of the GATT," explained Magda Shahin, TRAC director. "Today over three-quarters of WTO members are developed countries and least developed countries," Shahin, a former ambassador to Greece, told Al-Ahram Weekly. "Developing countries play an increasingly important and active role in the WTO as trade is becoming a vital tool in their development efforts," added Shahin who has participated in numerous United Nations and WTO conferences and trade negotiations. Shahin presented a paper entitled The Relevance of the WTO to the Egyptian Business Community: TRAC as a Useful Tool. She began from the premise that the world trading system is the making of the Uruguay Round. The current Doha Round, on the other hand, is dogged by many challenges and in particular disagreements and disputes over trade practices between least developed, developing and developed countries. The Doha Development Agenda, as it has come to be known, is distinguished by difficult negotiations and under the table deals. As the ingenious WTO head Pascal Lamy noted, "we have reached a deadlock but the round is not dead." The ramifications for Egypt are tremendous. "Egypt's exports more than doubled from $4.4 billion in 1999 to $10.5 billion in 2004, an increase of 135 per cent," explained Shahin. She says that it is precisely because the Egyptian economy is growing that "this makes it incumbent upon government and the private sector to be more aware of the WTO agreements, its instruments and their application at the international as well as national levels." Egypt has been part of the Dispute Settlement Mechanism as a respondent when four countries -- the United States, Thailand, Pakistan and Turkey, filed cases against it on various issues. In this context, it is important to note that under the WTO, over 200 Appellate Body reports, involving developing countries, either as complainants or respondents, had been reported. Participants also listened to the remarks of the president of AmCham Egypt, Taher Helmi. "If we want to work with government, we need to make sure that the business community can get the proper treatment that will help us convey the private sector's viewpoints," Helmi said. Among the sectors in Egypt expected to benefit from the liberalisation of trade in services is tourism. "Tourism is the driving force of the Egyptian economy," said Abdel-Hamid Mamdouh, director of the Services Department at the WTO. "One of the reasons blocking the way to promoting tourism in Egypt is the monopoly of EgyptAir over domestic Egyptian air travel. Liberalising trade in the air travel sector is very much needed," Mamdouh said. Among the WTO participants were representatives of the Egyptian Businessmen Association Federation of Chambers of Commerce, the Federation of Industries and the Egyptian Cotton Exporters Federation and Export Councils. "The government wants to involve the private sector but the private sector is not mature enough to formulate a policy position," conceded Mohamed Kassem, chairman of the World Trading Company. Kassem stressed government participation in a supportive capacity, pointing out that the textile industry, one of the better organised in the country, was keen to articulate its views as regards the WTO and had taken the lead in that respect.
