GENEVA: Yemen’s 13 year pursuit of a seat at the World Trade Organisation is set to end successfully this month, making its entry into the global trade club a formality early next year.
According to an agenda circulated to WTO members this week, the WTO working party on Yemen’s accession will meet on September 26 “with a view to adopting” the key documents setting out its membership terms.
The arrangement will be rubber-stamped by the full WTO membership and then again at a ministerial meeting in December, opening a three month window for Yemen to ratify it.
WTO officials say the deal was made possible after Ukraine agreed terms for Yemen’s membership, effectively withdrawing a veto that had been the only obstacle for more than a year.
All other WTO members have signalled they are ready for Yemen to join, and many had privately said they were mystified by Ukraine’s objections, since it had negligible trade links with Yemen. Yemen first applied to join the WTO in April 2000 and will become its 160th member.
Its accession will be a boost for a country that is struggling to recover from the turmoil brought by pro-democracy protests in 2011, which forced the president to step aside, took the country to the brink of civil war and dealt a blow to its already dismal economy.
Reuters
