Explaining the WTO Accession of Afghanistan: From the Neo-Liberalist Approach

Tianyue Wang; Jiahao Xu

doi:10.2991/assehr.k.220504.255

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Explaining the WTO Accession of Afghanistan: From the Neo-Liberalist Approach

Authors

Tianyue Wang¹^{, *}^{, †}, Jiahao Xu²^{, †}

¹Suzhou Science and Technology City Foreign Language High School, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China

²Shanghai Starriver Bilingual School, Shanghai, China

^†

Those authors contributed equally.

^*Corresponding author. Email: guanghua.ren@gecacademy.cn

Corresponding Author

Tianyue Wang

Available Online 1 June 2022.

DOI: 10.2991/assehr.k.220504.255 How to use a DOI?
Keywords: Afghanistan; the WTO; Neoliberalism; Policy
Abstract: The essay aims to explore why Afghanistan has accessed the WTO and the impact of the WTO accession on the country. Afghanistan has finally accessed the WTO in 2016 after long rounds of negotiations, but the impact of the WTO accession on the country remains controversial. The essay uses a case study method. Through the case study of Afghanistan, the essay seeks to have a broader lesson about other countries in the Middle East. The result of the essay reveals that multiple reasons have driven Afghanistan to enter the WTO, while the expansion of the international market and foreign direct investment hold the key. Therefore, the result of the essay partly confirmed the explanatory power of the neo-liberalist approach. Nevertheless, the research result also revealed what the neo-liberalist approach has failed to explain, which is that Afghanistan had achieved limited gains from its WTO accession. In conclusion, the essay deepens our understanding of the mechanism of the WTO as an international organization and the empirical process of Afghanistan’s accession to the WTO. In addition, the essay has proved the applicability of the neo-liberalist theory in the Middle East through the case of Afghanistan and developed the neo-liberalist approach that should be conditioned on the domestic political, economic, and religious reality of the country. Finally, the essay can be useful to policy recommendations to international organizations such as the WTO and the national governments such as Afghanistan to achieve better development. Admittedly, the essay only focused on Afghanistan and only tested the explanatory power of the neo-liberalist theory. Therefore, future studies can look into WTO accession in other countries in the Middle East and explore alternative theories such as realism and constructivism.
Open Access: This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.

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Volume Title: Proceedings of the 2022 8th International Conference on Humanities and Social Science Research (ICHSSR 2022)
Series: Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research
Publication Date: 1 June 2022
ISBN: 10.2991/assehr.k.220504.255
ISSN: 2352-5398
DOI: 10.2991/assehr.k.220504.255 How to use a DOI?
Open Access: This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.

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ris enw bib

TY  - CONF
AU  - Tianyue Wang
AU  - Jiahao Xu
PY  - 2022
DA  - 2022/06/01
TI  - Explaining the WTO Accession of Afghanistan: From the Neo-Liberalist Approach
BT  - Proceedings of the 2022 8th International Conference on Humanities and Social Science Research (ICHSSR 2022)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 1409
EP  - 1412
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.220504.255
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.220504.255
ID  - Wang2022
ER  -

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