Welcome, Tajikistan!

For those who missed it, Tajikistan became the 159th member of the multilateral trade institution, WTO on March 2nd 2013 after almost a decade of accession negotiations that began in 2001.

"As part of the accession accord, Tajikistan has agreed to undertake a series of important commitments to further open its trade regime and accelerate its integration in the world economy. The deal offers as well a transparent and predictable environment for trade and foreign investment. 

Tajikistan would apply WTO provisions uniformly throughout its entire territory, including in regions engaging in border trade, special economic zones and areas where special regimes for tariffs, taxes and regulations were established. 

From the date of accession, Tajikistan has committed to fully apply all WTO provisions without any recourse to transitional periods. It committed to join the Information Technology Agreement upon accession and will submit an application for membership of the Government Procurement Agreement within one year of its accession."

More the merrier, I guess...

Tajikistan, Azerbaijan and Afghanistan - inch towards WTO membership

For those following accession to the WTO (I know not many would be ardent followers now that more than 150 countries are members), Russia's accession is closely being followed by the accession process of Tajikistan, Azerbaijan and Afghanistan. I had blogged about Afghanistan's accession earlier here.

The WTO website reported Tajikistan's accession progress which is in its final stages (after 11 years of negotiation) thus:

“Once Tajikistan completes its domestic ratification procedures, it will become the 159th member of the WTO family. For Tajikistan, a small and landlocked country, WTO accession is a road leading to the world economy. For the WTO, it is another step towards universality and a sign of confidence in the values and benefits of the multilateral trading system,” said Director-General Pascal Lamy."

Afghanistan and Azerbaijan have still some way to go. Continuing accession to the WTO signifies the importance countries accord to the multilateral process and being part of the global body on international trade. It also signifies the importance of multilateral rules and governance structure inspite of the growing bilateral agreements. Is it a triumph of multilateralism? It also shows the extremely arduous and time consuming process of getting into the WTO!

Anyway, more the merrier...