Ensuring Development-Supportive Accession of Least-Developed Countries to the WTO: Learning from Nepal

The project, based on an assessment of Nepal accession to the WTO, aimed to evaluate to what extent the accession process, agreement and implementation in Nepal contributed and/or was likely to contribute to achieving the country public policy objectives. It also highlighted specific interests and constraints of LDCs that should be taken into account in ongoing and future accession negotiations. The project was also designed to identify options for adapting the accession process so that it facilitates LDC accession that is supportive of public policy objectives and explore options for Nepal to address accession-related issues, including in the ongoing round of WTO negotiations. It also intended to foster interaction among relevant stakeholders in Nepal to identify common objectives and strategies to advance Nepal interest as a recently acceded LDC at the domestic and multilateral levels. The project was supported by International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), Canada.