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Member since April 11, 2000
In January 1994,
Jordan applied for accession to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT
1947), which became an application for membership in the World Trade
Organization (WTO) after the establishment of the WTO in January 1995 in the
Uruguay Round.
In 1996, Jordan submitted to the WTO its Memorandum on Foreign Trade Regime and
thereafter received several rounds of questions from WTO Members on Jordan’s
economic policies and foreign trade regime, and engaged in three working party
meetings during the two years to follow. Realizing the importance of joining the
WTO before Seattle Ministerial Conference in December 1999, Jordan made a
political commitment to conclude accession before then. To achieve such a goal
in a record time, major economic and legislative reforms were made to bring the
Jordanian foreign trade regime into conformity with WTO requirements.
Amendments were made to existing laws and several new laws were drafted
especially in the field of intellectual property rights; amendments were made to
the Trademarks and Copyrights laws, and new laws on Patents, Models and
Industrial Design, Integrated Circuits, Trade Secrets and Unfair Competition,
Geographical Indications, and Plant Variety Protection were enacted. In other
areas, new laws were also enacted to replace existing laws that were not in
conformity with WTO requirements such as the Law on Standards and Metrology;
amendments were made to the Customs Law, General Sales Tax Law, and the Law on
Unifying Fees and Taxes. New regulations on Safeguard of National Production,
Non-Jordanian Investments, and Consular Fees were also enacted. The Parliament
held two special sessions to pass quite a large number of amended and newly
drafted laws.
In addition to enactment of the foregoing legislation and revision of its
economic policies, Jordan made commitments to provide liberal access to foreign
suppliers and investors on a wide range of services sectors. Tariff lines were
lowered and bound to rates ranging from 0% to 30%, by the year 2010, the maximum
bound rate for certain tariff lines will be 20%.
Jordan participated in three working party meetings on its accession during the
year 1999 and engaged in intensive bilateral negotiations with 16 WTO member
countries as well. The concentrated effort by both the government and Parliament
played a critical role in expediting the accession process. On December 17 of
the same year, The WTO General Council approved Jordan’s Protocol of Accession,
and the Jordanian Parliament ratified the Law on Jordan’s Accession to the WTO
on February 24, 2000. Jordan became officially the 136th WTO Member on April 11,
2000.
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Jordan & the World Trade Organization (WTO)