Following the establishment of a working party for the accession process, bilateral, plurilateral and multilateral negotiations take place in parallel. The successful conclusion of these negotiations leads to the drafting of an accession package (“terms of accession/entry”), which needs to be adopted by the accession working party and approved by the WTO's General Council or Ministerial Conference. Subsequently, the acceding government has to accept the “terms of entry” — either through signature or ratification — and becomes a full-fledged WTO member 30 days after it notifies the acceptance of its Protocol of Accession to the WTO Director-General.

The chart below shows the current status for ongoing accessions and lists, by year of membership, the economies that have joined the WTO since 1995 pursuant to Article XII of the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization.

Current status of WTO accessions:

Working Party established for 

Memorandum on the Foreign Trade Regime (MFTR) submitted by 

Factual Summary of Points Raised circulated for 

Elements of a draft Report stage (EdWPR) circulated for 

Draft Report of the Working Party circulated for  

Goods offer submitted by 

 

 

On-going bilateral market access negotiations on goods 

 

 

Draft Goods Schedule circulated for 

 

 

Services offer submitted by 

 

 

On-going bilateral market access negotiations on services 

 

 

Draft Services Schedule circulated for 

 

 

Draft Accession Package adopted, ad referendum, by the Working Party on the Accession of 

Formal action by GeneralCouncil/Ministerial Conference 

Acceptance by Acceding Government 

Notification of acceptance 

Membership since