Development Implications of WTO Accession Procedures

Since the establishment of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995, 21 countries or customs territories have joined the organization and one more, Vietnam, has met the requirements for accession. Of these, all are allowed to classify themselves as developing economies in the WTO, although one — Chinese Taipei — is classified as high income by the World Bank. Relative to the situation prevailing under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), it seems to be widely believed that most new members have had to make substantial commitments to reform their trade regimes and to reduce the level of their tariffs. This has generated considerable controversy, since some new members have ended up with much more open trade regimes than existing members — a situation widely regarded as unfair.