The Philippines has taken an important step in promoting regional trade and economic cooperation by becoming the first ASEAN Member State and the third fastest to negotiate and sign a bilateral market access agreement with East Timor. This historic signing, which took place on January 25, 2023, was gratefully acknowledged by Mr. Joaquim Amaral, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, during the 5th Meeting of the Working Group on the accession of East Timor to the World Organization for Trade (WTO), held on April 20, 2023.
East Timorese President José Ramos-Horta, in a video message to ambassadors and trade negotiators, highlighted the importance of WTO and ASEAN membership for the country’s economic growth and development, especially in line with with the aim of transforming East Timor into a modern and diversified economy and improving the quality of life of its population.
Ambassador Rui Macieira of Portugal, Chairman of the Task Force, praised East Timor for setting a positive example to other acceding countries and Least Developed Countries (LDCs) by using the WTO to drive domestic reform and transformation. The president also briefed on the progress of Timor-Leste’s accession to ASEAN, noting that the decision of ASEAN members agreeing in principle to admit the country as the 11th member during the ASEAN Summit in November 2022 would provide momentum. for the completion of the WTO process and would help Timor-Leste to align and coordinate its trade obligations at the regional and multilateral levels.
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Minister Amaral underscored East Timor’s strong ambition to be an open liberal economy, with his proposed average bound tariff rate for goods, which represents the lowest average bound rates among LDC members.
Comoros and East Timor join the WTO
In parallel to the meeting of the Working Party on the Accession of East Timor, the Coordination Group on Accession-related Technical Assistance (TA) held its second meeting to discuss the specific needs of Comoros and East Timor in relation to their integration into the multilateral trading system after its accession to the WTO. Both LDCs aim to complete their accession processes before the 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13), to be held in February 2024.
WTO Deputy Director-General Xiangchen Zhang stressed the importance of technical assistance in LDC accessions, particularly to meet future commitments and obligations. Several development partners, including the International Trade Center, the World Bank, the Trade Development and Standards Facility, the World Trade Institute Advisers and bilateral partners, welcomed the developments and reaffirmed their support to Comoros and East Timor in their transition towards accession to the WTO.
The President of East Timor stressed the importance of WTO and ASEAN membership for the economic growth and development of the country
Ambassador Manuel Teehankee, Permanent Representative of the Philippines to the WTO, stressed that “accessions remind us why the multilateral trading system remains attractive to so many economies. We continue to support the Secretariat Coordination Group on accession-related technical assistance and note the importance of technical assistance both in the accession and post-accession phases.”
“In the case of East Timor, we would support a strong alignment between WTO-related technical assistance and ongoing capacity building that is supporting East Timor’s increasing readiness to join ASEAN as its 11th member state. We share the Chairman’s optimism that East Timor will join us as a new WTO Member on or before the 13th Ministerial Conference and urge WTO Members to do their best to support this worthwhile mandate-fulfilling goal. of the WTO to promote global prosperity,” concluded Teehankee.
