On 18 October 2017, the WTO announced that the WTO Committee on Government Procurement agreed on 18 October to grant observer status to Afghanistan and Brazil. The announcement said:
On March 28, 2017, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced that the U.S.-Afghanistan Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) Council met on March 27 and 28 in Kabul, Afghanistan.
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…
On June 21, 2016, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) published in the Federal Register a final rule amending the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) by adding thirty-six (36) persons to the Unverified List (the ‘‘Unverified List’’ or UVL), and adding an additional address for one (1) person currently listed on the UVL. The 36 persons are being added to the UVL on the basis that BIS could not verify their bona fides because an…
On 16 December 2015 the WTO announced that the 10th Ministerial Conference welcomed Liberia’s accession package and membership in the WTO. Liberia will bring the number of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in the WTO to 35 — more than a fifth of the WTO membership. On 17 December 2015, the WTO announced that the 10th Ministerial Conference had approved the accession package for Afghanistan. For Afghanistan, this is the culmination of an almost 11-year long process…
On 17 December 2015, at the 10th Ministerial Conference, the WTO announced that it has received six additional ratifications for the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), bringing up to 63 the number of WTO members that have formally accepted the TFA. Several ratifications were submitted by ministers during the organization’s Tenth Ministerial Conference in Nairobi. The six are: Myanmar (Burma), Norway, Viet Nam, Brunei, Zambia and Ukraine.
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…
On August 1, 2014, the Bureau of Industry and Security, Commerce (BIS) published in the Federal Register a final rule [Docket No. 140627545–4617–01] that amends the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) by adding sixteen persons under nineteen entries to the Entity List. The persons who are added to the Entity List have been determined by the US Government to be acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States. These persons…