Accessions to the WTO advance: Ethiopia, Uzbekistan…
The deputy director general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Alan Wolff, announced the program of accessions to that organization for this fall, with the inclusion of countries such as Ethiopia and Uzbekistan.
In the coming weeks, meetings of the working groups will be held for two least developed countries that are candidates to join the WTO, and the accession processes of two other candidates who want to join the Organization have been reactivated.
The working group on the accession of Comoros will convene on 14 September, while Timor-Leste is scheduled to hold its first accession meeting with WTO members on 1 October.
In turn, Ethiopia and Uzbekistan, which relaunched their respective working groups earlier this year after long periods of inactivity, are actively preparing for follow-up meetings in the coming months.
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These four countries are among the 23 that are in the process of accession.
«Accessions to the WTO have been a success story for the Organization, expanding the scope of WTO rules to 98% of world trade and bringing the total number of members to 164,» said Wolff.
«Despite the pandemic crisis, many acceding governments remain active and are in regular contact with members and the Secretariat to advance technical work,» he added.
Wolff explained that the Organization’s Secretariat is actively supporting acceding governments through technical assistance and outreach activities, which are now offered in virtual formats.
Building on the success of Accessions Week in June attended by more than 800 participants, the Secretariat plans to organize activities on agricultural negotiations related to accessions from the Arab region (together with the Arab Monetary Fund), Trade for Peace and 25 years of achievements in accessions.
