WTO membership harms national industry [Archives:2005/835/Business & Economy]

Informed sources at the Chamber of Trade and Commerce said that the relative benefit Yemen would gain by joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) is an annual decrease in customs by 20 percent. Under this arrangement customs would be abolished by 2010, yet the Yemeni exports to the Arab countries will be increased.

This step will negatively affect national industry with Yemeni products and would seem as having lower quality when comparing to the other products available in the local markets. Sources told the Yemen Times that ascension to the WTO would help improve Yemen's economy by reinforcing commercial exchanges between Yemen and the other Arab states working to establish an Arab Free Trade Zone.

The private sector would also benefit from the clear strategy of industrial development that WTO membership would provide.

The sources called for limits to state ownership and management of economic establishments and a widened scope for private sector initiatives in development. The coming period requires the decrease of customs of imports to the lowest degree after joining WTO.

This condition of the World Bank and IMF will negatively influence the national industry and remove its legal protection. Sectors of transformational industries, according to specialized studies, are suffering from the increase of burdens on the part of the industrialists as taxes and other fees.
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