After more than two decades of protracted deliberations and political hesitation, Ethiopia's ambition to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has reached a decisive and accelerated phase. A sixth Working Party meeting convened in Geneva on September 26, 2025, signalled a rare motion in pace, marking the second session within six months, a tempo rare in the WTO accession process.

Led by Kassahun Gofe, minister of Trade & Regional Integration, Ethiopia’s 18-member delegation was in Geneva with a renewed political mandate and a sharpened economic rationale of clinching WTO membership ahead of the Ministerial Conference scheduled for March 2026 in Yaoundé, Cameroon. The negotiating team included Eyob Tekalegn, governor of the Central Bank; Zeleke Temesgen (PhD), commissioner of the Ethiopian Investment Commission; and, Debela Kabeta, commissioner of Customs.

The country’s long-awaited membership now appears not just plausible, but politically prioritised.

"Our accession has entered a decisive phase," declared Kassahun. "The moment is a turning point."

Since applying for WTO membership in 2003, Ethiopia has made halting progress through negotiations, mired in ideological ambivalence and structural rigidities. Now, however, a national technical team spanning 35 federal agencies is actively engaged, coordinated by a WTO Committee under the Trade Ministry. In the run-up to the latest session, Ethiopia convened a local WTO Forum and conducted bilateral negotiations with 14 of the 18 members seeking market access.

The team submitted 50 new legislative documents, bringing the total to 398, and addressed more than 200 technical queries from member states, following 290 addressed at previous sessions. Ethiopia’s Elements of a Draft Working Party Report was also formally upgraded to a full draft, a milestone that typically takes years to achieve in other accession cases. WTO officials and trade diplomats praised the momentum as reflective of genuine reform.

According to Deputy Director-General, Xiangchen Zhang, Ethiopia’s trajectory evidences a shift “from a state-led economy towards one driven by the private sector.”

Rebecca Fisher Lamb, chairwoman of the Working Party and a UK trade representative, applauded the progress but warned of tight timelines.

“The time before the Ministerial Conference is short,” she said, urging member states to sustain technical engagement.

The broader macroeconomic backdrop has done much to reframe the rationale for WTO accession. Ethiopia’s Home Grown Economic Reform Agenda, including the liberalisation of financial services, revised investment codes, and adjustments to the forex market, has gained new momentum since the fifth Working Party meeting in March 2025. Contentious reforms, such as opening banking to foreign investors and reducing capital controls, have earned guarded support from the U.S., U.K., and Canada, countries previously sceptical of Ethiopia’s protectionist orientation.