PH Leads ASEAN in Concluding Bilateral Market Access Agreement with Timor-Leste, Calls for More Support for Timor Leste in its Bid to Join WTO in 2024
Philippine Ambassador and Permanent Representative Manuel Teehankee delivers the Philippine Statement during the meeting. (WTO PM photo)
GENEVA, 12 May 2023 — The Philippines has taken a significant step in further fostering regional trade and economic cooperation by becoming the first ASEAN Member State, and third fastest to negotiate and sign a bilateral market access agreement with Timor-Leste. This milestone signing, which took place on 25 January 2023, was acknowledged with appreciation by Mr. Joaquim Amaral, Coordinating Minister of Economic Affairs, during the 5th Working Party Meeting on Timor-Leste's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), held on 20 April 2023.
President José Ramos-Horta of Timor-Leste, in a video message to Ambassadors and trade negotiators, emphasized the importance membership in the WTO and ASEAN for the country's economic growth and development, particularly in line with the goal of transforming Timor-Leste into a modern and diversified economy and improving the quality of life for its people.
Ambassador Rui Macieira of Portugal, the Chair of the Working Party, praised Timor-Leste for setting a positive example for other acceding countries and Least Developed Countries (LDCs) in using the WTO to drive domestic reform and transformation. The Chair also reported on Timor-Leste's ASEAN accession progress, indicating that the decision by ASEAN members agreeing in principle to admit the country as the 11th member during the ASEAN Summit in November 2022 would provide an additional impetus for the finalization of the WTO process and help Timor-Leste align and coordinate its trade obligations at regional and multilateral levels. Minister Amaral stressed Timor Leste’s strong ambition to be an open liberal economy, with its proposed average bound tariff rate for goods representing the lowest average bound rates among LDC Members.
On the sidelines of the Working Party Meeting on the Accession of Timor-Leste, the Coordination Group on Accessions-related Technical Assistance (TA) held its second meeting to review the specific needs of Comoros and Timor-Leste regarding their integration into the multilateral trading system after WTO accession. Both LDCs aim to complete their accession processes by the 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) in February 2024.
WTO Deputy Director-General Xiangchen Zhang highlighted the importance of technical assistance in LDC accessions, particularly in implementing future commitments and obligations. Several development partners, including the International Trade Centre, World Bank, Standards and Trade Development Facility, World Trade Institute Advisors, and bilateral partners, welcomed the progress and reaffirmed their support for Comoros and Timor-Leste in their transition to WTO membership.
Ambassador Manuel Teehankee, Permanent Representative of the Philippines to the WTO, emphasized that “accessions remind us why the multilateral trading system remains attractive to so many economies. We remain supportive of the Secretariat’s Coordination Group on Accessions-related Technical Assistance and note the importance of technical assistance both during the accession and post-accession phases. In the case of Timor Leste, we would support strong alignment between WTO-related technical assistance and ongoing capacity building that is supporting Timor Leste’s increased readiness to join ASEAN as its 11th Member State. We share the Chair’s optimism that Timor-Leste will join us as a new WTO Member on or before MC13 and urge WTO Members to exert their very best efforts to support this worthy objective that delivers on the WTO mandate to promoting global prosperity.” END
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