PORT VILA (Pacnews) — Vanuatu is expected to accede to the World Trade Organization before the end of the year.
Vanuatu made history earlier this year when it pulled out at the last minute after the WTO Secretariat accepted its application.
The country’s Trade Director Roy Mickey Joy said while the pull out was “political,” this time Vanuatu has complied with 99.9 percent of requirements to join the world trading body. “Our negotiations to join WTO took five years and cost us 50 million vatu. But we are determined and with the political will by this new government, we will open up new dialogue with WTO,” Joy told journalists at the Forum Economic Ministers Meeting in Port Vila.
“For Vanuatu, our process to accede to WTO has been difficult. We were the first least developed country to try to accede. Because we are an LDC, under the rule of the international trade policy, there is a mention of special and preferential treatment.”
He said Vanuatu would have been denied that treatment by the United States, if they had acceded last year.
