Afghanistan may appear to many to be an unlikely candidate for a group whose mission is to boost global growth through trade. War-torn for the last 15 years, and embroiled in conflict for much of the past three decades, the country is deeply impoverished and depends largely on foreign aid and illicit industries to prop up its fledgling economy. Yet in December 2015 the South Asian country was granted full approval to join the World Trade Organization.
Its official membership into the free trade bloc is still subject to certain domestic government approvals but having been voted in at the WTO’s 10th Ministerial Conference in Kenya, Afghanistan is set to become just the ninth least developed country and one of the poorest ever to join the World Trade Organization. Its inclusion raises many questions and even a few perplexities about the investment case for a conflict zone and the role that the development industry can play to support a trade-led economic growth strategy.
Devex spoke with Abdul Safir Sahar, an expert on Afghanistan’s trade and customs issues with Chemonics International, to provide context and insight to the issue. Sahar is based in Kabul and was an adviser to the “Trade and Accession Facilitation for Afghanistan” process, a U.S. Agency for International Development-led initiative for business and legislative reforms to support Afghanistan’s WTO application.