On 29 July 2016, the WTO announced that Afghanistan joined the WTO as its 164th member, after nearly 12 years of negotiating its accession terms. It has also formally accepted the WTO’s new Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). Afghanistan is the ninth least-developed country (LDC) to accede to the WTO since the organization’s establishment in 1995. Afghanistan’s accession package was approved by the Working Party members on 11 November 2015 and by Ministers at the Nairobi Ministerial Conference on 17 December 2015. Afghanistan deposited the instrument of acceptance for its WTO Protocol of Accession on 29 June 2016, activating the 30 day countdown to membership.
