Proposal for a Council Decision establishing the European Union position within the General Council of the World Trade Organization on the accession of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic to the World Trade Organization

Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) have reached the concluding stage of an agreement on the terms for Lao PDR's accession to the organization. This comes after 14 years of negotiations, which began when Lao PDR submitted its application to join the WTO in 1997.

Lao PDR's request for accession has been examined in accordance with the guidelines set out in the WTO General Council Decision of 10 December 2002 on the accession of least-developed countries (LDC) and there must now be a Council Decision approving the terms of Lao PDR's accession, before the EU can formally support Lao PDR's entry.

EUR-Lex: COM(2012)534: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2012:534:FIN

---