INDUSTRY MINISTER: NO OBSTACLE TO YEMEN'S ACCESSION TO WTO

GENEVA, Jan.26 (Saba) - Minister of Industry and Trade Yahya
al-Mutawakil affirmed on Tuesday that there is no obstacle to
Yemen's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

This came during his meeting in Geneva with Head of the Working
Group on Yemen accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO)
Harmott Rubin.

The two sides discussed steps taken by Yemen to complete the
requirements of accession to the organization as well as the
progress in Yemen bilateral negotiations within the completion of
the accession process and the required support to finalize those
negotiations, including the documents handed over by Yemen to the
7th round of negotiations.

In this respect, al-Mutawakil valued the efforts by the head of the
group to support Yemen's efforts in completion of the accession
requirements as soon as possible to enhance the Yemeni trade
policies and investments attraction in the various sectors.

Al-Mutawakil noted to the progress achieved by Yemen in upgrading
the legislations to conform to the requirements of accession to the
WTO within the program of political and economic reforms.

Yemen seeks to gain WTO membership as it is a strategic goal to make
the trade relations compatible with the international system rules
so as to ensure compatibility and complementarity of Yemen business
systems with the international trading system, al-Mutawakil said.

He stressed the need to take into account Yemen's conditions during
the negotiations course and to enable it to take advantage of the
privileges granted to the least developed countries.

For his part, head of the working group renewed its full support to
Yemen's accession to the WTO, confirming that he would exert all
possible efforts to accelerate the accession.

BA