The accession process commences with the submission of a formal written request for accession pursuant to Article XII of the WTO Agreement. This request is considered by the General Council which establishes a Working Party to examine the accession request and to submit recommendations to the General Council which may include a Protocol of Accession. The Working Party is open to all Members of the WTO.

Established procedures require the applicant government to present to Working Party members a memorandum covering all aspects of its trade and legal regime. This memorandum forms the basis for detailed fact finding by the Working Party. After examining all aspects of the existing trade and legal regimes of the acceding government, the Working Party goes into the substantive part of the multilateral negotiations involved in accessions, i.e. determining the terms and conditions of entry. These terms and conditions, involving commitments to observe WTO rules and disciplines upon accession, and transitional periods if any, are finally incorporated in the Draft Report of the Working Party and the Protocol of Accession.

At the same time, the applicant government engages in bilateral negotiations with interested Working Party members on concessions and commitments on market access for goods and services. This bilateral process determines the specific benefits for WTO Members in permitting the applicant to accede to the WTO.

Once both the Working Party’s Draft Report and Protocol of Accession and the market-access commitments in goods and services are completed to the satisfaction of members of the Working Party, the “accession package” is presented to the General Council or the Ministerial Conference for adoption. Once approved, the applicant is then free to sign the Protocol. Thirty days after the applicant government notifies the WTO Secretariat that it has completed its ratification procedures, the applicant government becomes a Member of the WTO.

Questions are often raised as to when a WTO applicant can accede to the WTO and whether it joins the WTO as a developing or a developed country. These questions are an inherent part of each WTO accession negotiation. Basically, this involves the granting of certain flexibilities in the implementation of WTO rules and disciplines — a matter determined in the negotiation process. While accession processes vary in length and can take several years to complete, much depends on the speed with which the applicant government is able to adjust its trade and legal regime to the requirements of WTO rules and disciplines.

Because each accession Working Party takes decisions by consensus, WTO Members must be in agreement that their individual concerns have been met and that all outstanding issues have been resolved in the course of their deliberations.

Since the WTO was established on 1 January 1995, seven countries have become WTO Members. These are: Ecuador, Estonia, Latvia, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia and Panama. The WTO is awaiting notification of ratification from Georgia.

With 31 governments still in the queue for membership to the WTO, accessions will remain a major challenge for WTO Members in the years ahead.

Applicants

The following 31 governments have requested to join the WTO. Their applications are currently being considered by WTO accession working parties. Each of the governments listed below has WTO observer status. The only ones which have not yet applied to join the WTO are the Holy See (Vatican) and, for the time being, Ethiopia, Cape Verde and Yemen.

Albania
Algeria
Andorra
Armenia
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Bosnia Herzegovina
Bhutan
Cambodia
People’s Republic of China
Croatia
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Lao People’s Democratic Republic
Lebanon
Lithuania
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
Moldova
Nepal
Oman, Sultanate of
Russian Federation
Samoa
Saudi Arabia
Seychelles
Sudan
Chinese Taipei
Tonga
Ukraine
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Vietnam

Note: The WTO is waiting for confirmation of ratification from Georgia. It will become the 136th Member of the WTO 30 days after the WTO receives confirmation of ratification.

Membership of the World Trade Organization
135 governments as of 13 November 1999