DOHA -- Ministers of the World Trade Organization are set to approve Taiwan's bid to join the world trade body Sunday evening while they continue to work on pending issues in an attempt to launch a new round of global trade talks at the end of the five-day meeting.
On the third day of the WTO's fourth ministerial meeting in Doha, Taiwan's entry is expected to win the unanimous consent of ministers from the 142 WTO economies, who endorsed a similar bid from mainland China the previous day. Formal procedures for the accession by both economies are expected to be completed by the end of the year.
WTO membership is likely to deepen economic relations between Beijing and Taipei, which have been restricted since Communist troops forced Nationalist leaders to flee to the island in 1949, by influencing Taiwan's restrictive trade policy with the mainland. Taiwan has banned not only direct trade and investment with the mainland but also transport and telecommunications.