KABUL (TCA) — Today, July 29, Afghanistan has become the 164th member of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Afghanistan’s Parliament ratified the country’s Protocol of Accession on 18 June, clearing the final hurdle for its WTO membership.
Afghanistan applied for WTO membership in 2004, with members of the accession working party concluding the negotiations on 11 November 2015.
WTO members officially approved Afghanistan’s accession during a special ceremony at the Nairobi Ministerial Conference on 17 December 2015.
Afghanistan is the 36th government and the ninth least-developed country (LDC) to join the WTO following accession negotiations since the WTO was established in 1995.
A Post-Accession Forum for Afghanistan and Liberia took place on the margins of UNCTAD 14 on 19 July in Nairobi, Kenya. The Forum, co-organized by the WTO and UNCTAD, congratulated the two least-developed countries on completing their WTO accession negotiations and looked ahead to how the two countries would benefit from WTO membership.
The forum also heard a pledge from the international community to grant Liberia and Afghanistan post-accession support to help them advance their domestic reforms and their trade and development agenda.
Speaking at the forum, Humayoon Rasaw, Minister of Commerce of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, said: “Afghanistan is committed to maximize the benefits of WTO membership by sustaining modernization and reform of the economy, enhance growth and development, secure stable and non-discriminatory access for Afghan exports, improve our business environment, and integrate into the rules-based global economy. We understand that the continued post-accession support will remain critical in this process.”
