Accession: 2012
Samoa’s accession to the World Trade Organization was motivated by Governments intention to help maintain a stable macroeconomic environment and improve private sector development and employment creation. Accession is a powerful instrument to enhance trade security, improve access to international markets, and support Samoa’s liberalization efforts.
Samoa first submitted its interest to become a WTO Member in 1998. A WTO Working Party Committee comprising of Members who were interested in the trade regime of Samoa was established and over thirteen years Samoa negotiated and concluded bilateral with China, New Zealand, Honduras, Australia, Japan, the European Union, Ukraine, Canada and the United States of America. The results of these negotiations are documented in three key documents i.e, Working Party Report, the Schedule on Services concessions and the Schedule on Goods concession
On 10th May 2012 Samoa became the 155th Member of the WTO bringing the total number of Pacific WTO member countries to six (Fiji, Solomon Islands, PNG, Tonga, Samoa and Vanuatu).
Samoa, like any other recently acceded member country to the WTO, is obligated to implement its commitments which are contained in its Working Party Report as well as its formal notifications to the WTO. As a WTO Member, Samoa is also obligated to undergo a Trade Policy Review every few years in order to monitor obligations and enhance transparency on trade policy developments. Samoa’s first Trade Policy Review since membership was carried out in 2019.
Transparency is a key principle of the WTO which seeks to promote greater clarity of trading partners’ policies and intentions. Transparency is important for small island countries like Samoa that rely on information provided by other WTO Members in order to asses the potential markets our exporters are able to access especially given that Samoa has a very limited export base. The Samoa Trade Information Portal is a public platform that provides updated trade relation information to enhance Samoa’s Transparency obligations under the various trade arrangements she is a party to.
