Montenegro joins World Trade Organisation

Geneva, Switzerland (17 December 2011) -- The Ministerial Conference, the World Trade Organisation’s topmost decision-making body, unanimously accepted Montenegro as WTO’s newest member at a meeting in Geneva earlier today.

Prime Minister Igor Lukšić and WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy signed the Protocol of Accession making Montenegro the 156th member of the World Trade Organisation.

“With its membership in the WTO, Montenegro accepts the duty to observe the internationally adopted rules of operation. In this way, we provide equal treatment to our enterprises abroad, and send another positive signal to the foreign investors,” PM Igor Lukšić said in his address at the WTO Ministerial Conference.

Montenegro has gone through a series of multilateral and bilateral negotiations since the launch of WTO accession talks in December 2004. Having successfully completed the negotiations with Ukraine on 18 November 2011, Montenegro cleared the last remaining hurdle to becoming a full member of the WTO.

The WTO accession marks an important step for the country's integration into the international economic community and meets on of the government's top economic policy priorities.