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Accessions

Last updated: 30/07/2012 // Norway is a strong advocate for the rules-based multilateral trading system, and welcomes all new members. When the accession of the Russian Federation, which was accepted by the WTO Ministerial in December 2011 enters into force, 97 % of the world trade will be covered by the WTO. The Russian Federation is expected to ratify the accession package in July 2012. As of 10 May 2012 WTO has 155members. The latest accessions were by Montenegro and Samoa.

During the accession negotiations Norway focuses particularly on market access for services and seafood products. As part of the market access condition for seafood the implementation of the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures and the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade is also important.

There are still a number of countries that are in a process to accede to the WTO. For each applicant a Working Party is established to negotiate the terms of accession. Each Working Party consists of those members who take a particular interest in the accession of the applicant. Norway is currently a member of the Working Parties of Algeria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kazakhstan and Serbia.

Norway is participating actively in the work to make it easier for the least Developed Countries to accede to the WTO.


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