Accessions

As at July 1999, there were 134 members of the WTO. Working Parties have been established to consider the accession applications of: Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Cambodia, China, Croatia, Estonia, Georgia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Peoples' Democratic Republic of Laos, Lithuania, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Nepal, Oman, Russian Federation, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Sudan, Chinese Taipei, Tonga, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu and Vietnam.

The WTO recognizes as least-developed countries (LDCs) those countries that have been so designated by the United Nations. There are currently 48 least-developed countries on the UN list, 29 of which to date have become WTO Members. Six other LDCs are in the process of accession to the WTO. They are: Cambodia, Laos, Nepal, Samoa, Sudan and Vanuatu. Furthermore, Bhutan, Cape Verde and Ethiopia are WTO Observers.

To facilitate accession negotiations, the Secretariat provides technical assistance before, during and after accession. This can cover, depending upon individual countries’ need, providing expert advice in the preparation of necessary documentation, facilitating market access negotiations and the drafting of laws and regulations.

In consultation with WTO Members, the Secretariat has also streamlined accession processes for LDCs and small island developing economies, by

• reducing the number of Working Party meetings,
• ensuring maximum possible progress is achieved between meetings without accession applicants having to undertake frequent visits to Geneva, and
• by expediting as much as possible the bilateral market access negotiations on goods and services.

As well, the Secretariat provides wide ranging technical assistance to all acceding governments via workshops and technical seminars at the regional and national level, and through trade policy courses for officials.

Least-developed countries benefit from a WTO initiative to establish Reference Centres on the multilateral trading system and provide information technologies to help decision-makers better understand and utilise the rules and mechanisms of the WTO. Additionally, all LDCs can benefit from activities provided under the Integrated Framework. To ensure the optimum assistance is available to applicant governments, the Secretariat is increasingly co-ordinating its activities with other international and regional agencies, particularly the IMF, World Bank, UN, UNCTAD, ITC and WIPO.