The Fourth Session of the Ministerial Council of the Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) was held on 13^th January 2017 in Bangkok. The Mongolian delegation to the Ministerial Council session was headed by T.Tugsbilguun, Ambassador of Mongolia to the Kingdom of Thailand and Permanent Representative of Mongolia to UN ESCAP. In his address to the Ministerial Council, Ambassador T.Tugsbilguun reiterated the Mongolian Government’s strong intention to join APTA and introduced the steps being taken in the country to accede to the Agreement.

The Ministerial Declaration adopted by the 4^th session reiterated its support to Mongolia in becoming a new Participating State of the APTA and reaffirmed their commitment on a priority basis to expand the membership of the Agreement to evolve it into a truly pan-Asia Pacific Trade Agreement.

In addition, the heads of the delegations signed the Protocol to amend APTA: Second Amendment, which revised National Lists of concessions incorporating the Fourth Round concession list and Rules of origin. They also launched the web “APTA Tariff Concessions (MoPs), NTMs and RoO database”.