This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KABUL 000419 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR SA/FO, SA/A, EB/BTA FOR MBGOODMAN 
TREASURY FOR PARAMESWARAN 
NSC FOR AHARRIMAN, KAMEND 
COMMERCE FOR AADLER 
USTR FOR GHICKS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O.12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON ETRD EAID PREL AF
SUBJECT: AFGHAN WTO ACCESSION: MODEST PROGRESS 
 
REF: 05 Kabul 3697 
 
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SUMMARY 
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¶1.  (SBU)  The GOA is making modest progress on WTO 
accession and plans to reach out to the Afghan private 
sector to promote WTO membership.  The Afghan Commerce 
Ministry, which has the lead on WTO accession, is building 
in-house trade capacity to support its accession efforts. 
The Embassy will seek to provide assistance for additional 
capacity building efforts.  End Summary. 
 
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PROGRESS ON THE WTO FOREIGN TRADE REGIME MEMORANDUM 
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¶2.  (SBU)  Econoffs met with Sultana Parvanta, an Afghan- 
American who is working as a senior advisor to Commerce 
Minister Arsala, to discuss the latest developments in the 
GOA's WTO accession efforts.  Parvanta has the lead on WTO 
accession at the Commerce Ministry and heads up an inter- 
ministerial task force on accession.  She informed Econoffs 
that she has completed three chapters of the Foreign Trade 
Regime Memorandum (FTRM), which has yet to be vetted with 
the task force.  (Note: The FTRM describes the status of a 
country's commercial and economic laws and must be submitted 
to the WTO before formal trade regime negotiations can 
begin.  In early December 2005, Ambassador Assad Omer, the 
GOA's Permanent Representative in Geneva, said a draft of 
the FTRM would be completed by March, 2006.  At that time, 
no part of the FRTM had been written.) 
 
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CAPACITY-BUILDING GATHERS MOMENTUM 
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¶3.  (SBU)  Parvanta does not have a trade policy background, 
has virtually no support staff and is working mightily to 
compensate for these deficiencies.  She attended a three 
week WTO trade policy training course in Geneva in 
September, 2005 (expenses paid by UNCTAD) and is now 
conducting capacity-building seminars for Ministry staff to 
develop in-house know-how to support the accession effort. 
In addition, she has been assisted by three junior 
consultants, two from Bearing Point and one from the United 
Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).  One 
of the Bearing Point representatives, Khalid Yousefsai, is 
an Afghan who recently began attending the WTO's three month 
long trade policy course designed to help WTO accession 
candidates and will be hired as a permanent Ministry 
employee upon his return.  Parvanta has also begun working 
with three Ministry employees whom she discovered have had 
varying levels of trade policy training and they are now 
assisting her on accession issues. 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  UNCTAD, which has been designated by the Commerce 
Ministry as the lead coordinator on accession issues, has 
promised to provide Parvanta with a translator.  This is 
crucial because all accession-related documents must be 
translated into both English and Dari.  (Note: The inter- 
ministerial task force, which includes representatives from 
the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Justice, Finance, 
Agriculture, Mines and Industry, Economy, the Central Bank 
(DAB) and other line ministries, has few members who are 
fluent in English.)  USAID will also provide three new 
consultants for trade policy, law and regulation and human 
resources. 
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OUTREACH TO PRIVATE SECTOR ON WTO ACCESSION 
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¶5.  (SBU)  Parvanta plans to reach out to the Afghan private 
sector after completing in-house capacity-building at the 
Ministry.  The purpose of the outreach is to explain the 
benefits of WTO membership and the accession process in 
order to build private sector support for WTO accession. 
Parvanta intends to begin a series of public discussions 
with the Afghan business community starting in April.  She 
has requested USG assistance with this effort.  Parvanta 
also promised to provide copies of commercials legislation, 
both drafts and enacted laws, for USTR to review for WTO 
compliance. 
 
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COMMENT 
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¶6.  (SBU)  In a short time Parvanta has made commendable 
progress in steering the GOA further down the long road of 
WTO accession.  Just six weeks ago nothing had been written 
for the FTRM and Parvanta, who remains a one-woman show for 
Afghanistan's accession efforts, was expressing frustration 
about the lack of support she was receiving from both the 
GOA and UNCTAD.   The Embassy will work with the Department, 
USAID, Commerce and USTR to bring Parvanta and a small GOA 
team to Washington for inter-agency trade policy training, 
similar to the program that was done for Iraq in November, 
2004.