Proposal for a Council Decision establishing the position to be taken by the European Union within the General Council of the World Trade Organization on the accession of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the WTO

Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Afghanistan have reached the concluding stage of an agreement on the terms for the accession of Afghanistan to the organization. This comes after 10 years of negotiations, which began when Afghanistan submitted its application to join the WTO in 2004.

Afghanistan’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 now a Council Decision approving the terms of Afghanistan’s accession is required by the TFEU, before the EU can formally support that approval in the WTO.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2014)223: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2014:223:FIN

ESO: Background information: EU and Afghanistan sign deal on WTO accession http://www.europeansources.info/record/press-release-eu-and-afghanistan-sign-deal-on-wto-accession/

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