Aside - UK House of Lords debates WTO and mention's Oman using WTO todrive through economic reform

Wonderful thing about the internet and free speech, combined with Hansard.

Here's a transcript of a debate in the UK's esteemed House of Lords, where on the topic of Europe and the WTO, Oman came up.

The expert being questioned describes (second hand) how Oman used the WTO to help the Government in driving through business reform, under the banner of joining the WTO - as reportedly voiced by someone from the Oman Export Development agency.


Chairman: Thank you very much. Ms Francis, I am conscious that we are trespassing on your time. If you have another five minutes, Lord Haskins has another question and I would like Lord Trimble to ask a question.

Q364 Lord Haskins: It seems to me the gist of what you are saying all the time blah blah blah...

Ms Francis.....A country like Ethiopia coming into the WTO is a huge step in the right direction for the private sector because all of a sudden there are obligations which have to be put in place. I recall at one of our annual meetings there was someone there from the Oman Export Development Agency and he said that joining the WTO was the greatest thing because it was an excuse to move forward on all of the business environment things that they had had on the agenda for a long time. Before they had been blocked but because the government had to sign up to the agreement, had to step up to the table on all of these issues and sign off on them, it then allowed the private sector to push and cause these things to move faster than perhaps they would have.

Chairman: I think that is phenomenal. We have seen that with people joining the European Union, in fact... blah blah blah

Nice to know, and makes sense.

I'm as usual curious: Does the Majlis in Oman do any of this - ie Issue transcripts of (some) debates as a public record? I think Hansard has been publishing UK Parliament debates etc for centuries.