There are a few hurdles that Nepal needs to clear before we join the World Trade Organisation at the September convention in the Mexican resort of Cancun. Of the seven trade partner countries the government needs to convince, it has reached agreements with Australia and New Zealand. The European Union and Japan have shown positive indications but there are issues that need to be discussed with Canada, India and the United States. ?We have meetings with them next month and if all goes well, we will be in the WTO by September,? says commerce secretary Dinesh Chandra Pyakurel. Civil society, the private sector and trade experts are lobbying for a special status given to least-developed countries (LDCs), particularly landlocked ones, with regard to their integration into the multilateral trading system. At a meeting in Kathmandu earlier this month, they also issued a 16-point declaration for patents on life forms, food and agriculture, indigenous knowledge and practices, and quota free access to products from LDCs.