 |
On 26 September 2013, the WTO announced that members of the Working Party on the Accession of Yemen agreed on the terms of WTO membership for Yemen. The accession package will be presented to the 159 WTO members and subsequently to the 9th Ministerial Conference in Bali, 3-6 December, for a formal decision by ministers.
In the 11th meeting of the Working Party, WTO members concluded 13 years of negotiations. Yemen’s terms of membership, contained within its accession package, include reforms to Yemen’s trade laws, commitments on market access for goods and services, a draft decision for adoption by the General Council, and Yemen’s draft Protocol of Accession. Yemen would become the seventh least-developed country to join the multilateral trading system since 1995. During the accession process, WTO members have worked with Yemen to adapt its trade laws to WTO rules and have trained its government officials. Members said they would continue to provide Yemen with required technical assistance in its post-accession process. Yemen has signed bilateral agreements on market access for goods and services with Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, El Salvador, Honduras, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Ukraine and the United States. For goods, Yemen has committed to bind its tariffs to an average of 21.1 per cent for all products — 24.9 per cent on average for agricultural products and 20.5 per cent for other products. In services, Yemen is committed to opening its markets to 11 sectors, covering 78 sub-sectors. Yemen has made commitments in customs valuation, price controls, state enterprises, technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures and other areas. |
Categories:
