International Business

Madagascar to Join WTO: The nation is due to be formally admitted to the World Trade Organization on Friday, bringing membership to 111, a spokesman for the trade body said. The spokesman said another island state, Tonga in the Pacific, had applied to join and that the WTO General Council agreed to set up a working party to study the request. The WTO was launched Jan. 1 to succeed the old General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the world trade body that had a total of 128 members. The remaining GATT countries are expected to come into the WTO soon.