Proposal for a Council Decision establishing the position to be taken by the European Union within the Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization on the accession of the Republic of Yemen to the WTO

Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Republic of Yemen have reached the concluding stage of an agreement on the terms for the accession of Yemen to the organization. This comes after 13 years of negotiations, which began when Yemen submitted its application to join the WTO in 2000.

Yemen’s request for accession has been examined in accordance with the guidelines set out by the WTO General Council on the accession of least-developed countries (LDC) and there must now be a Council Decision approving the terms of Yemen’s accession, before the EU can formally support that approval in the WTO.

In submitting the terms of Accession of the Republic of Yemen to the WTO for approval by the Council, the Commission considers these terms as representing a balanced and ambitious package of market opening commitments, which will bring substantial benefits to Yemen and its WTO trading partners alike.

EUR-Lex: COM(2013)720: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2013:720:FIN

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