From July 1 to 3, 2025, China and Ethiopia held bilateral market access negotiations on Ethiopia’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Addis Ababa. The two sides reached a consensus on all the requests and offers in the areas of trade in goods and services and agreed to conclude the bilateral market access negotiations substantively. The substantive conclusion of these negotiations will significantly boost Ethiopia’s WTO accession process to the WTO.

Ethiopia applied to join the WTO in 2003 and is conducting bilateral market access negotiations with 22 members, including China, the United States, the European Union, and Japan, etc. China is the first WTO member to substantively conclude bilateral negotiations with Ethiopia. China also provides technical assistance to Ethiopia through the “China Program” under the framework of the WTO, actively supporting its accession to the WTO as a least-developed country as soon as possible.