Albania En La OMC

ALBANIA AND THE WTO

INTRODUCTION

In the XX century, Albania was a knowingly socialist country, but with the course of history its system changed towards a capitalist regime that allowed to participate on the global interactions. Trough this paper we aim to analyze the changing con Albania regime, its process of accession to the World Trade Organization and finally to study how the national economic policies facilitate an integration to the global trade system.

THE REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA

Albania is a country in Southeastern Europe that gained its independence from the Ottoman Empire on 1913, it then had a short-lived monarchy and was subsequently occupied by Fascist and Nazis.

After the liberation of this forces, Albania became a communist state named the People's Republic of Albania and then renamed "the People's Socialist Republic of Albania" in 1976, during this period new land reform laws were passed, which granted the land to workers and countrymen that worked the land; large sized properties (specially those from religious groups) where nationalized, religious beliefs where severely limited and many beliefs where left outside, in 1967 Albania was proclaimed as the first atheist state.

In 1989 protests began and led to the foundation of the Republic of Albania in 1992, an economic collapse and social discomfort gave strength to de Democratic Party who finally took power, nevertheless, an even bigger economic crisis appeared in 1996 leading to an armed rebellion in 1997. In 1999 the Kosovo War affected the country a brought along a great number of refugees.

With the elections of 1997 socialists were back in the power, occupying the most relevant charges in the government, including presidency and vice presidency. In 1998 the Democratic Party gained power again, which led to finally ratifying a constitution that established a democratic system based on the rule of law and protection of human rights in 1998.

“The transition has proven challenging as successive governments have tried to deal with high unemployment, widespread corruption, dilapidated infrastructure, powerful organized crime networks, and combative political opponents. Albania has made progress in its democratic development since first holding multiparty elections in 1991, but deficiencies remain. International observers judged elections to be largely free and fair since the restoration of political stability following the collapse of pyramid schemes in 1997; however, each of Albania's post-communist elections have been marred by claims of electoral fraud. The 2009 general elections resulted in a coalition government, the first such in the country's history. In 2013, general elections achieved a peaceful transition of power and a second successive coalition government. Albania joined NATO in April 2009 and is a potential candidate for EU accession. Although Albania's economy continues to grow, it has slowed, and the country is still one of the poorest in Europe. A large informal economy and an inadequate energy and transportation infrastructure remain obstacles”

Albania currently counts with a foreign policy that focuses on strategic partnership with the United Stated and the European Union, they “pledge to engage in a consultative approach and intensive interaction with the U.S. and EU in bilateral and multilateral fora, in order to increase the quality and multiply the benefits of our strategic cooperation with Washington and Brussels.”

ALBANIA JOINS WTO

The accession process to the WTO starts with the article 12 of the WTO Agreements, which states the applying country must send a formal written request to accede. This request is then considered by the General Council, which creates an exclusive working party to examine the application, the working party then provides a protocol os accession and a series of recommendations to the General Council. The applying country has to undergo four stages with the working party:

The tell us about yourself stage: The government has to describes all aspects of its trade and economic policies

The workout with us individually what you have to offer stage: The government begins talks with individual countries according to their own trading interests.

The let’s draft membership terms stage: Once the examinations have been concluded and the bilateral negotiations are complete, the terms of accession are finalized, which consist of a series of commitments to observe WTO rules and disciplines either as soon as the new member joins or in transitional periods.

The decision stage: The final package that consists of the report, protocol and a lis of commitments is presented to the General Council or the Ministerial Conference. Two-thirds majority is required to allow the applicant sign the protocol to access the organization.

Albania began this process in november 1992 as a result of its foreign policy that aims to strengthen the relationships with the US and the EU on a multilateral level, throughout a request to access the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT 1947), in december 1992 the GATT 1947 Contracting Parties stablished a Working Party (the GATT 1947 Accession Working Party was then transformed into a WTO Accession Working Party) to examine the application of the Government of Albania to accede to the General Agreement under Article XXXIII.

The Working Party on the Accession of Albania issued a Report con July 13th of 2000, which brought to an end the Negotiations on Albania's terms of accession to WTO that started in earnest in 1998. The WTO General Council adopted the final results of these negotiations on 17 July 2000.

During that General Council meeting, Albania's Minister for Economic Cooperation and Trade, Ermelinda Meksi, said that WTO membership “presents us with a new role in the international community” and would help bring “improvement of the wellbeing and prosperity of my people.”. She showed the importance of belonging to the organization:

“The representative of Albania said that membership in the WTO was one of Albania's most important economic policy objectives. From 1944–1992, Albania was the antithesis of a market economy. Private ownership was completely forbidden and all economic activity was controlled by the State, without exception. For much of this period, Albania's economic, political and cultural ties with the rest of the world were reduced to an absolute minimum. Albania's case was unique in terms of the intensity of the economic centralization and isolation. The present situation was strikingly different. The Albanian Government had passed laws providing for private ownership, entrepreneurial activity, open competition, bankruptcy,

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