ACCESSIONS

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Mr Joaquim Amaral, Coordinating Minister of Economic Affairs and Chief Negotiator for WTO Accession, led the Timorese delegation, which included 37 senior officials from a range of ministries and government agencies, both physically present in Geneva and connected virtually from the capital, Dili.

In his opening statement, Mr Amaral said that this Working Party meeting marked an important landmark and demonstrated that Timor-Leste has all the necessary elements in place to work towards joining the WTO: strong political will at the highest level and across all partisan lines; readiness to promptly advance with setting up the necessary legislative and policy frameworks, with the involvement of all stakeholders; and a dedicated negotiating team.

“WTO accession is one of the main economic and trade policy objectives enshrined in Timor-Leste’s Vision for 2030, necessary to help achieve faster economic growth, diversification and transformation into an upper middle-income economy with a healthy, well-educated and safe population. As our nation celebrates 20 years of its independence, we believe Timor-Leste's integration in the multilateral trading system is an important step that needs to be taken as expeditiously as possible. We are ready to work hard together with members, to make it happen,” he said.

The meeting marked the third round of multilateral engagement taking place in less than two years. Since October 2020, when the process was officially activated with the first meeting of the Working Party, Timor-Leste has worked on the submission of a full inventory of its foreign trade regime for review by the Working Party, on a formulation of its trade policy and market access offers, and — most recently — negotiating its future accession commitments with members.

At the last meeting on 29 July 2021, Timor-Leste expressed its readiness to expedite both the multilateral and bilateral tracks. A few months later, a large delegation from Timor-Leste visited Geneva between 27 November and 4 December to hold bilateral meetings with WTO members, the WTO Secretariat and development partners. 

WTO Deputy-Director General Xiangchen Zhang noted that Timor-Leste is one of the fast-advancing  accessions rapidly moving towards maturity. “It is indeed heartening to see that during the pandemic, it has been least-developed countries — Timor-Leste and Comoros, especially — which have been most active of all ongoing accessions, demonstrating the seriousness and dedication to the WTO. This is an important and encouraging signal, especially in the lead up to the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC12) which is now scheduled for 12 to 15 June,” said DDG Zhang.

On the bilateral front, Timor-Leste reported significant advances since July 2021 in market access negotiations with members. Timor-Leste also said it is revising the initial offers on goods and services to respond to requests by members. Timor-Leste hopes it can sign some of the bilateral market access agreements on the margins of MC12.

On the multilateral front, Timor-Leste submitted replies to additional questions by members, a revision of the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Checklist, a revision of the Legislative Action Plan and translations of new laws as well as an update of the information on Domestic Support and Export Subsidies in the Agricultural Sector. Based on these documents, the WTO Secretariat produced the “Elements of a Draft Working Party Report”, containing draft language on Timor-Leste's future WTO commitments.

“We hope that this initial ‘commitment package’, which we understand is already extensive for a least-developed country, demonstrates our dedication to adherence to the WTO rules and reflects our strong will to integrate in the international goods and services markets. As an LDC, we will appreciate members' consideration of our specific needs in this process,” Mr Amaral said.

Ambassador Rui Macieira of Portugal, Chair of the Working Party, reminded members that Timor-Leste is an LDC and drew their attention to the 2002 LDC Accession Guidelines, together with its addendum adopted by the General Council in 2012, calling on members to facilitate and accelerate the negotiations of LDC accessions.

Ambassador Macieira stressed “the importance of timely and coordinated provision of technical assistance to Timor-Leste as an LDC” and thanked members and development partners for the various support provided to Dili so far. “Such support should be sustained throughout the accession process, and also post-accession, to help Timor-Leste realise the full benefits of WTO membership,” he said.

Members were unanimously appreciative of the efforts made by Timor-Leste and expressed hope that this process will succeed in the near term. They noted that accession to the WTO is an unambiguous signal by a country that it intends to pursue and implement significant and meaningful economic reforms. They committed to work with Timor-Leste to help bring their trading regime in line with WTO rules and facilitate their participation in the multilateral trading system.

The Working Party meeting was followed by a Round Table on Technical Assistance for Timor-Leste, moderated by WTO Deputy-Director General Xiangchen Zhang, which aimed to update members and development partners on Timor-Leste's accession-related needs in technical assistance and capacity building, and to coordinate available donor support in a timely manner.

The round table was attended by members and multilateral partners who exchanged their experiences on their ongoing support to Timor-Leste's accession.

Next steps

The chair invited Timor-Leste to circulate its revised market access offers on goods and services, to provide responses to members' questions together with its revised Agriculture Supporting Tables and the SPS Checklist, and to continue updating its Legislative Action Plan and submitting translations of draft and adopted WTO-related legislation. He  urged Timor-Leste to expedite its work on the adoption of the remaining draft legislation to make sure that all legislation scheduled for enactment before WTO accession is adopted in a timely manner.

On the multilateral front, he asked the Secretariat to prepare a Draft Report of the Working Party on the basis of the discussions of the 3rd Working Party and inputs to be received after this meeting, including any additional proposed draft commitments.

The timing of the next meeting will depend on the availability of the required inputs from Dili. Ambassador Macieira suggested another meeting in autumn 2022, given Timor-Leste's desire to advance the accession process towards its conclusion as swiftly as possible.

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