Ethiopia reaffirms its commitment to conclude WTO accession by March 2026

Addis Ababa, April 26, 2026 (FMC) — On the sidelines of the 2025 IMF-WB Spring Meetings being held in Washigton DC, a high level event was held focusing on Ethiopia’s and Uzbekistan’s WTO accession process.

Speaking at the event, Ethiopia’s State Minister of Finance Mr. Eyob Tekalign presented the success of the homegrown economic reform in Ethiopia and its relevance to Ethiopia’s WTO accession bid.

Eyob reaffirmed Ethiopia’s commitment to conclude its WTO accession by MC14 in Yaoundé in March 2026.

The forum was co-organized by the WTO, World Bank Group and the IMF. In attendance were Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the WTO, Mr. Ndiame Diop, WB Vice President for East and Southern Africa and Mr. Ken Kang, Deputy Director of Strategy at the IMF.

Participants commended Ethiopia’s commitment to be part of a rules-based global trading system and pledged to provide full support to Ethiopia’s accession bid.

WTO Director General Iweala has underscore the criticality of getting the right technical and capacity support from the multilateral organizations and bilateral partners to move the accession process forward.