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The WTO announced that WTO members adopted Seychelles’ WTO terms of entry at the General Council meeting on 10 December 2014. Seychelles will have until 1 June 2015 to ratify the deal to formally become a WTO member 30 days after it notifies the ratification to the WTO Director-General. Once the accession procedure is completed, the Seychelles will become the 161st member of the WTO. Seychelles originally applied for WTO membership in 1995 and the Working Party concluded the negotiations on 17 October 2014. The Seychelles has committed itself to comply fully with WTO provisions without resorting to any transitional periods. The only exception regards the WTO Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade, which it will fully implement only as from December 2015. In line with the accession package, the Seychelles has undertaken a broad range of commitments to open up its trade regime and speed up its integration in the world trade system. Among other things, the Seychelles has committed itself to replace its current ban on imports of hides and fur skins, palm plants, second-hand vehicles, left-hand drive vehicles, automotive bodies and camouflage clothing with an authorisation system. The list of Seychelles’ commitments is available here. |
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