Presentation on WTO Membership , its Conditions , Accession Process, Withdrawal and Suspension of Membership

1. WTO Membership
Muhammed Yasil
NUALS, LLM(International Trade Law)

2. WTO Membership
• World Trade Organization was established in 1995 to liberalize
trade and to spur economic growth. It is a member driven
organization.
• The process of becoming a WTO member is unique to each
applicant country, and the terms of accession are dependent
upon the country's stage of economic development and current
trade regime.
• Current membership is 164 members (as of July 2016)
• WTO members comprise of Original Members and Members
through Accession.
• Apart from these Observer status is given to Countries and to
International Organizations.

3. Who can become a member of
WTO ?
• States and Separate custom territories can become WTO
members.
• Under Article XII trading parties who are not fully fledged
sovereign state can become WTO members subject to certain
conditions.
• Condition No-1 : they must be separate custom territories.
• Condition No-2 : they must posses full autonomy in conduct of
their external commercial relations.
Example: Macao , China and Hong Kong .

4. Benefits of WTO Membership
• smooth trade flow between members
• to resolve trade disputes
• lowers the cost of doing business
• grants Most Favored Nation status
• lowering trade barriers
• access to developed markets at lower tariff rate

5. Original Membership Article XI
• The original member states of the World Trade Organization
are the contracting parties to the GATT 1947 and the European
Communities.
Membership through Accession Article XII
• Each accession is unique and negotiated on a case-by-case
basis.
• Set of procedures has been developed by the WTO
Secretariat in consultation with members.

6. Membership by Accession Article
XII
• Any State or separate customs territory possessing full
autonomy in the conduct of its external commercial
relations and of the other matters provided for in this
Agreement and the Multilateral Trade Agreements may
accede to this Agreement(Article XII:1)
• Decisions on accession shall be taken by the Ministerial
Conference. The Ministerial Conference shall approve the
agreement on the terms of accession by a two-thirds
majority of the Members of the WTO(Article XII:2)

7. Process of an Accession
• Step 1 : Request for accession.
• Step 2 : Establishment of a working party.
• Step 3 : Accession negotiations; Bilateral and Multi lateral
Negotiations
• Step 4 : Fact finding phase
• Step 5 : Working party meeting
• Step 6 : Accession package

8. Article XIV – Acceptance , Entry
into force and Deposit
• This agreement shall be open to acceptance for Contracting
parties of GATT and European Communities .
• Such Acceptance shall apply to this Agreement and
Multilateral Trade agreements annexed hereto.
• The Entry into force of the agreement shall be determined by
the Ministerial Conference and it shall open to acceptance for 2
years or any other period decided otherwise.
• Implementation of Concession and Obligations by the
members.
• The acceptance and entry into force of the plurilateral trade
agreements shall be governed by the provisions of this
agreements.

9. Article XV- Withdrawal
• Any member may withdraw from this agreement.
• Withdrawal shall apply both to this Agreement and the
Multilateral Trade Agreements.
• The withdrawal shall take effect upon the expiration of
six months from the date on which written notice of
withdrawal is received by the Director-General of the
WTO.

10. Suspension or Revocation of
Membership
• No express provision on Suspension or revocation of
Membership.

11. Criticism on accession process
• The WTO membership process is lengthy one. Example:
China’s accession process start in 1993 and still pending.
• Since WTO members met only 2 times in an year , the
working party meetings are less.
• The complex procedure in accession process .
• There is a weak follow up for the process.
• Political issues.
• Time consuming phases like Preparation of Memorandum and
Negotiations.

12. Recommendations / Suggestions
• Central Coordination and Management by the Accession
Member
• Adopt Liberal trade policies that helps in integration .
• Identify the weak areas in institutional infrastructure and
sorting them out.
• WTO should formulate policies to speed up the accession
process i.e. working parties must be done in frequent intervals.
• Providing moderate demands to comply and extension of time.
• The developed countries providing technical assistance to
developing and Least developing countries.

13. THANK YOU