The Impacts of Iran's joining the WTO on Employment and Value Added of Economic Sectors (CGE/AGE Approach

Flowing the Uruguay Round negotiations (1986-1994), the World trade system has evolved. On the basis of agreements of this round, World trade organization (WTO) members have been obligated to decrease tariff obstacles, non-tariff restrains and trade supports. The use of trade liberalizing policies (tariff obstacles and non-tariff restrains) by members and observing countries has had significant impacts on different economic sectors. Iran's tariff and non-tariff restrains are the main obstacles for joining the WTO. In second and third development programs, the Iranian Government has adapted the trade liberalizing policies such as tariffs reduction and elimination of non-tariffs; but the complete joining needs revising tariffs and non-tariffs restrains. In this study, we surveyed the impacts of Iran's joining the WTO on employment and value-added through designing the Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) Model and using SAM Matrix (2001, 1380). With solving the model in GAMS software, we found that decreasing, tariffs would increase employment and value-added of»Natural Resources Based Industries«including oil and gas, mines, and chemical industries, and would decrease services and agricultural activities. In all, the findings of the current study indicates that total employment would decrease significantly if Iran joins WTO.