WTO set to agree Yemen’s membership terms

Yemen’s 13 year pursuit of a seat at the World Trade Organization is set to end successfully this month, making its entry into the global trade club a formality early next year. The WTO working party on Yemen’s accession will meet on Sept. 26 with a view to adopting the key documents setting out its membership terms. The arrangement will be rubber-stamped by the full WTO membership and then again at a ministerial meeting in December, opening a three-month window for Yemen to ratify it. The deal was made possible after Ukraine agreed terms for Yemen’s membership, effectively withdrawing a veto that had been the only obstacle for more than a year. Yemen first applied to join the WTO in April 2000 and will become its 160th member.