WTO Accession and Developing Countries: Ethiopia in Focus

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to present a survey of trade issues in WTO membership from the perspective of developing countries putting Ethiopia in focus. Developing countries are a large percentage of the World Trade Organization (WTO) membership, in which Ethiopia is on process of acquiring membership. I examines the experiences of least developing countries (LDCs) acceded to World Trade Organization (WTO) in relation to their accession process, terms of accession and implementation of commitments with a view to drawing lessons which could be relevant to Ethiopia to devise successful strategies and avoid mistakes in an effort to gain maximum benefits from its WTO membership. Since accession to the WTO is not an end in itself, Ethiopia should carefully and strategically negotiate to reap the potential benefits of membership in light of its long-term development strategies.