Impact of Accession of Islamic Republic of Iran to the World Trade Organization on Maritime Transportation Services (Shipping)

Islamic Republic of Iran is in process of accession to the World Trade Organization. Accession to the WTO requires a long time and complicated negotiations with the members of the Working Party to give commitments in the several sections which the Working Party is interested in. Negotiations on the Services are one of the most important aspects of negotiation in terms of wideness, complexity and influency. It is one of the sections that needs lots of consultation and discussions. The working party is negotiating to open up and liberalize the services sector of the acceding country as much as they can. As maritime transportation services has an important role in business, this study concentrates on the experiences of some of the acceding countries such as, Peoples Republic of Korea, United Kingdom (European Union), Indonesia, Malaysia, Ukraine, Russian Federation, Montenegro, Peoples Republic of China, Cambodia, Oman, Kyrgyz Republic, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia etc. to clarify the essence of commitments in the maritime services. The services such as transportation of cargo and passengers, vessels chartering with crew, maintenance and repair of vessels, pushing and towing services, maritime cargo handling, storage and warehousing, Customs clearance, Container station and depot, Maritime Agency, Forwarding Services, Brokerage Services (Shipping – Customs – Freight) and other additional commitments are the relevant services that these countries have given commitments and it is expected that the same commitments will be requested from I.R.Iran. In the other words these are the commitments that I.R.Iran will open up in the process of accession to the WTO.