الآثار التجارية و الاقتصادية لاتفاقات التجارة الدولية على الدول العربية غير الأعضاء في منظمة التجارة العالمية

Abstract EN

Subsequent to the Uruguay round of multilateral trade negotiations, the World Trade'Organization (WTO) has become the main actor in the International Trading System.

Up until recently, 9 Arab countries have become members of WTO, 6 others are in the process of becoming members and other countries have not signal any desire to join the WTO club.

With the enlargement of the scope of agreements within WTO and in light of the fact that members represent more than 90 % of world trade, it is only natural that Arab economies will be affected irrespective of whether they are members or not.

The paper tackles the impact of WTO accession on the economies of the non-member Arab countries in addition to discussing the membership status of the different countries in the region.

More specifically, the paper overviews the main WTO agreements pertaining to the main issues and sectors, and analyzes their impact on the non-member Arab countries.

The main conclusion of the paper is that the potential net benefits of joining WTO outweigh the loss of not joining especially in terms of the foregone opportunity of an easier access to international markets of goods and services.