Yemen is the 160th member of WTO

Yemen has received approval to be a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) after talks in Bali of Indonesia to finalise its accession plan more than a decade after the Middle Eastern nation first applied for membership in 2000.

The nation, on the elbow of the Arabian peninsula, has roughly six months to ratify its accession package and will become the 160th member of the WTO about a month after, according to a statement by the global trade regime.

With Yemen's entry in the WTO, the voice of Least Developed Countries (LDCs) will get more voice, said trade, commerce and supplies, and finance minister Shankar Prasad Koirala, at the capacity of chair of LDCs in the WTO, on the occasion.

Though Yemen applied for the membership some 13 years ago, it took the country more than a decade to get the membership due to stringent rules, he said, asking the WTO to simplify the rules for entry for the LDCs. "The WTO should focus on capacity building of the LDCs to make them eligible for the membership of the global trade regime."