The resolution to set up an ad hoc group for Libya's accession was adopted by consensus today at the WTO General Council's current session, to run through Friday.
Libya applied for WTO membership back in 2001, but until now the U.S. and other Western nations accusing Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi of proving support for international terrorism have turned the resolution down every time it was put to a vote.
But the application from Iran, accepted for consideration in 2001, was again rejected at the US' initiative.
The establishment of a working group is only the first step toward WTO membership, and none of the negotiators dares predict how long it will take Libya to gain admission. The Working Group for Russia's WTO Accession was set up back in 1993, but the accession negotiations are still ongoing, and are unlikely to be completed before the end of next year, as officials at the Russian Economics Ministry say.
Nonetheless, the General Council's current session is to focus on a framework agreement drafted by the WTO Secretariat with a view to resuming world trade liberalization negotiations launched in the Qatari capital of Doha in 2001. The delegates are expected to bring the issue up Wednesday.
The so-called Doha round of negotiations, to be completed by the beginning of 2005, reached a deadlock after the failure of the WTO fifth ministerial conference, held in the Mexican resort of Cancun in September 2003.
The WTO Director General, Thailand's Supachai Panichpakdi, has repeatedly called on the member countries to "be realistic" and to sign a "compromise" agreement if only to follow through on the Doha round.
Subsidies and duties in the agribiz and the policy of protectionism vis-a-vis cotton producers remain the two main stumbling blocks between developing and developed countries.
Developed countries will find it difficult to reach consensus on the Doha agreement, observers say. Already, France has called on the European Union to abstain from signing up to the document, which it describes as "unbalanced." The United States, for its part, has accused the French, of impeding the rescue of the Doha round.
A Russian delegation is attending the WTO General Council's session in the observer capacity.
