HANDBOOK ON ACCESSION TO THE WTO: CHAPTER 4

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

 

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4.7 Completion of Working Party Mandate

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When the negotiations in the areas of rules, domestic support and export subsidies for agricultural products, and goods and services bilaterals are completed to the satisfaction of members and the applicant, the Working Party is in a position to finish its work under its mandate. To do this it completes its Report to the General Council/Ministerial Conference.

Working Party Reports start with short introductory sections and references to the documentation provided and go on to summarize the discussions held on WTO rules. In each specific case where commitments have been negotiated and accepted by the applicant, the Reports contain texts laying down the details. Reports conclude by making the recommendations called for in the terms of reference of the Working Party. All Reports so far adopted include as an annex draft Protocols of Accession setting out the terms on which the applicant should be invited to accede. The applicant’s terms of entry form a single package which must be agreed by the membership and accepted by the applicant as a whole. The Working Party Report also annexes a draft General Council/Ministerial Conference Decision inviting the applicant to accede to the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization on the terms and conditions set out in the draft Protocol. The texts of the Decisions have all been identical (see Annex 10.1). The document numbers of Working Party Reports of applicants that have acceded to WTO are listed in Annex 5.

Most Protocols of new Members are similar although the standard text was amended in January 2001 to bring it into line with other WTO Decision documents. The basic provisions have remained the same. The common core provisions state that, upon its entry into force, the applicant accedes to the WTO Agreement pursuant to Article XII and thereby becomes a Member of the WTO with the rights and obligations of membership. The new Member is bound to observe the rules contained in the Agreement establishing the WTO, as rectified, amended or otherwise modified as of the date that its Protocol enters into force. The text common to all these Protocols is reproduced in Annex 10.2.

In addition, each of the Protocols of the new Members that have acceded so far also contains obligations which are specific to that Member. All these Members have accepted obligations to abide by rules that are either spelled out in the Protocol itself or in the Working Party’s commitment paragraphs which are incorporated by reference into the Protocol. These commitment paragraphs are thus integral parts of the Protocol and have the same status and legal effect as the commitments in the Protocol itself. These two sets of provisions are referred to below as Protocol commitments. In addition, annexes to the Protocol contain the new Member’s Schedule of Concessions and Commitments on Goods, which sets out maximum rates for individual customs tariffs and commitments on domestic support and export subsidies for agricultural products, and its Schedule of Specific Commitments on Services. The Protocol provides that these shall become Schedules of GATT 1994 and GATS, respectively.96

The Protocols make clear that the obligations of the acceder are an integral part of the WTO Agreement to which the applicant accedes. It has been accepted in the WTO that the Agreement can be modified in this way and that the rights and obligations contained in the Protocols of Accession are enforceable through the WTO’s Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes.

Accession Working Parties adopt their Reports, including the whole accession package, by consensus in accordance with the usual WTO practice.97 During the last meeting of the Working Party, the Report, including the Schedules on Goods and Services, are adopted ad referendum — i.e. subject to approval by governments. Once the adoption of the Report is confirmed, it is submitted to the General Council or, if this is to meet soon, the Ministerial Conference. In only one case has an applicant requested that an adopted Working Party Report not be forwarded to the General Council for the time being.98

 

Notes:

96. For practical reasons, the Goods Schedule and the Services Schedule are contained in separate addenda to the document containing the rest of the Report. back to text
97. For provisions on decision-making in the WTO, including the provisions on voting, see Agreement Establishing the WTO, Article IX:1. back to text
98. Vanuatu. back to text

  

  

 

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