{"id":57481,"date":"2015-11-11T23:42:15","date_gmt":"2015-11-11T21:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/2015\/11\/afghanistan-wto-accession-package-ready-for-formal-adoption-in-nairobi\/"},"modified":"2015-11-11T23:42:15","modified_gmt":"2015-11-11T21:42:15","slug":"afghanistan-wto-accession-package-ready-for-formal-adoption-in-nairobi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/afghanistan-wto-accession-package-ready-for-formal-adoption-in-nairobi\/","title":{"rendered":"Afghanistan WTO accession package ready for formal adoption in Nairobi"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n GENEVA, Switzerland, November 11, 2015\/APO (African Press Organization)\/ —
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WTO members negotiating Afghanistan\u2019s accession agreed by consensus, ad referendum, on the terms of the country\u2019s WTO membership on 11 November 2015, paving the way for the ninth least-developed country to join the organization since 1995. Afghanistan\u2019s Accession Package will be submitted to ministers for a formal decision at the WTO\u2019s Tenth Ministerial Conference in Nairobi on 15-18 December.
\nOut of the original 48 least-developed countries (LDCs) on the United Nations list, 34 are WTO members. Out of the nine LDCs that have negotiated their membership terms since 1995, two accession packages (for Afghanistan and Liberia) were finalized in 2015 and will be presented to the Nairobi Ministerial Conference for formal adoption. Six more LDCs are negotiating to join the WTO. They are Bhutan, Comoros, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Sao Tom\u00e9 Principe, and Sudan.<\/p>\n

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WTO Director-General Roberto Azev\u00eado said:
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\n\u201cI commend the leadership of President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, under which the Government of Afghanistan has worked very hard to close this negotiating chapter. This is really positive news for Afghanistan and the WTO. WTO membership will help to create new trading opportunities and boost economic development. I praise WTO members for promoting the integration of another LDC into the rules-based multilateral trading system and I look forward to formally welcoming Afghanistan to the organization at our Ministerial Conference in Nairobi.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, said:
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\n\u201cI am delighted that WTO members today \u2014 November 11 \u2014 voted in favour of the Accession Package of Afghanistan. \u00a0This is a significant and historic step forward as Afghanistan seeks to build a modern economy. Our country’s accession to the WTO will serve as a catalyst for domestic reforms and transformation to an effective and functioning market economy that attracts investment, creates jobs and improves the welfare of the people of Afghanistan. \u00a0I praise WTO Director-General Roberto Azev\u00eado for his support for Afghanistan and for his leadership of the World Trade Organization.\u201d
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\nWorking Party Chairperson H.E. Roderick van Schreven (The Netherlands) said:
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\n\u201cThis is a tribute to both the multilateral trading system and the Government of Afghanistan. \u00a0The conclusion of this least-developed country’s accession is a critical win-win for LDCs and the WTO. \u00a0I know from speaking with members that the conclusion of the accession of Afghanistan shall be one of the highlights of the work of the WTO in 2015. \u00a0As WTO Director-General Roberto Azev\u00eado recently said, WTO members must be united in working hard to deliver for countries like Afghanistan and Liberia that are most in need of our support in the accession process and post accession.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GENEVA, Switzerland, November 11, 2015\/APO (African Press Organization)\/ — WTO members negotiating Afghanistan\u2019s accession agreed by consensus, ad referendum, on the terms of the country\u2019s WTO membership on 11 November 2015, paving the way for the ninth least-developed country to join the organization since 1995. Afghanistan\u2019s Accession Package will be submitted to ministers for a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[428,4585,830],"class_list":{"0":"post-57481","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-africa-news-2","7":"tag-africa","8":"tag-apo","9":"tag-news","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57481\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}