Assessing Determinants of Nepali International Trade: A reference with the World Trade Organization
Arun GC
Ministry of Agriculture, Land Management and Cooperatives, Government of Nepal
Nepal got the membership of the World Trade Organization through the negotiation process in 2004. The objective of Nepal in achieving the membership was to diversify its trade and to liberalize the trade regime. The paper attempts to evaluate whether Nepal achieved its objective as compared to the international trade regime before its accession to the WTO. The paper uses the secondary data retrieved from the World Bank and Nepal Rastra Bank. On the other hand, we have evaluated the trade diversification by using data from Nepal Rasta Bank. It was found that the objective of trade diversification was not found statistically significant, even after the accession to the WTO. Finally, the findings of the study can be translated to the trade policy to serve the national interest of trade balance in the backdrop of rocketing trade deficit of Nepal.
Keywords: Nepal, international trade, WTO
JEL Code: F13
