Brussels, 16/07/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 16 July, the EU and Liberia signed a bilateral agreement at the WTO in Geneva on market access for goods and services. The agreement will enable Liberia to make a big step towards WTO accession - a process that was launched in 2008.
“Today's signature is a milestone in Liberia's WTO accession process and an important step towards fostering our economic relations. Against the background of the devastating public health challenge of Ebola Liberia has made remarkable progress in preparing for WTO entry and we are looking forward to rewarding Liberia's efforts and welcoming the country into the WTO family very soon”, said EU ambassador to the WTO, Angelos Pangratis, who signed the bilateral agreement with Liberia's trade and industry minister, Axel M. Addy.
The commitments taken by Liberia as part of its agreement with the EU will be incorporated in Liberia's future WTO accession protocol.
In order to join the WTO, Liberia must complete its ongoing negotiations for bilateral agreements at the WTO on market access for goods and services with other member countries, and obtain the approval of the whole working group on its accession.
During the second meeting of this working group on 7 May, the member countries showed unanimously that they supported Liberia's accession process being concluded at the 10th WTO ministerial conference in Nairobi in December.
EU is outlet for 40% of Liberian exports. Trade flows between the EU and Liberia are small but balanced. Trade between the EU and Liberia represents just 0.03% of the EU's total trade value. EU imports from Liberia (worth half €0.5 billion in 2013) amount, however, to over 40% of Liberia's total goods exports.
As a least developed country, Liberia enjoys duty-free and quota-free access to the EU market for all its goods as part of the Everything But Arms initiative.
Trade between the EU and Liberia will soon also be governed by the economic partnership agreement that the EU initialled with 16 West African states in 2014. (Emmanuel Hagry)