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The WTO announced that WTO members negotiating Afghanistan’s accession agreed by consensus, ad referendum, on the terms of the country’s WTO membership on 11 November 2015, paving the way for the ninth least-developed country to join the organization since 1995. Afghanistan’s Accession Package will be submitted to ministers for a formal decision at the WTO’s Tenth Ministerial Conference in Nairobi on 15-18 December. Out of the original 48 least-developed countries (LDCs) on the United Nations list, 34 are WTO members. Out of the nine LDCs that have negotiated their membership terms since 1995, two accession packages (for Afghanistan and Liberia) were finalized in 2015 and will be presented to the Nairobi Ministerial Conference for formal adoption. Six more LDCs are negotiating to join the WTO. They are Bhutan, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Sao Tomé & Principe, and Sudan. |
