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 Liberia to the WTO

Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Republic of Liberia have reached the concluding stage of an agreement on the terms for the accession of the Republic of Liberia to the organization. This comes after 8 years of negotiations, which began when the Republic of Liberia submitted its application to join the WTO in 2007.

In submitting the terms of Accession of the Republic of Liberia 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 the Republic of Liberia and its WTO trading partners alike.

Liberia’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 taking into account the overall bilateral trade relations with Liberia in the context of the EU-ACP partnership.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2015)469: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2015:469:FIN

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