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HANDBOOK ON ACCESSION TO THE WTO: CHAPTER 4

The accession process — the procedures and how they have been applied

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4.9 Adoption of Report by General Council / Ministerial Conference

It may first be noted that when the General Council sets up an accession Working Party, it delegates examination of the request for accession to that body and there is no procedure established for the review of accessions by the General Council. Only on very few occasions have Members raised issues relating to individual ongoing accessions in the General Council.¹⁰¹

When the Report comes before the General Council, it is introduced by the Chairperson of the Working Party. The representative of the applicant is given the floor and WTO Members welcome the outcome of the negotiations.

At the invitation of its Chairperson, the General Council/Ministerial Conference then:

• approves the text of the draft Protocol of Accession and the text of the draft Decision on the Accession of [X];
   
• in accordance with the Decision-Making Procedures under Articles IX and XII of the WTO Agreement agreed in November 1995¹⁰², adopts the draft Decision on the Accession of [X]; and
   
• adopts the Report of the Working Party as a whole, including the Schedule on Goods in its Addendum 1 and the Schedule on Services in its Addendum 2.

Since 1995, these decisions have been taken by consensus, in accordance with WTO practice.¹⁰³

Before a Working Party Report is brought to the General Council, the Secretariat checks that the acceding government has paid its contribution to the WTO budget as an observer (see section 2.1 on First contacts, above). It may only accede to the WTO if its financial obligations have been fully discharged. The applicants contribution to the WTO’s annual operating budget is based on its share of the total international trade of all Members (imports plus exports).¹⁰⁴ According to the budget for 2006, a Member accounting for 1 percent of the trade of all Members was assessed about CHF 1.7 million (about $ 1.4 million, € 1.1 million.). A minimum contribution of 0.015 percent was paid by Members whose share of the total trade was less than 0.015 percent of the total. In 2006, 39 Members paid a minimum contribution of about CHF 26,000 (about $ 21,000, € 16,300). New Members also pay a one-time advance to the Working Capital Fund in accordance with the scale of contributions applicable to the budget for the year of its accession. In 2006, a new Member with 1 percent of world trade advanced about CHF 93,000 (about $ 77,000, € 58,000.) The minimum of the advance amounts to 0.5 percent of the principal of the Fund. New Members paying the minimum would therefore be assessed some CHF 47,000 (about $ 39,000, € 29,000) in 2006.

Notes:

101. For instance, an issue relating to the accession of Latvia was placed on the agenda by the European Communities, WTO document WT/GC/M/29, item 9. The point at issue concerned specific commitments on audio-visual services, which are dealt within the relevant Section below. back to text
102. WTO document WT/L/93, 15 November 1995. back to text
103. Agreement Establishing the WTO, Article IX:1. back to text
104. The statistics used relate to trade in goods (excluding gold held as a store of value), services and intellectual property rights as reported in the Balance of Payments statistics from the IMF. See Financial Regulations of the WTO, WTO document WT/L/156/Rev.1, 21 November 2003. back to text

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