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PRESS RELEASE: PRESS/TPRB/246
27 and 29 April 2005

TRADE POLICY REVIEW: PARAGUAY

Stability of the trade and investment regime, crucial to achieve sustainable growth

Paraguay has made significant efforts to streamline and modernize its trade regimen since its first Review in 1997 including a reduction of applied MFN tariffs to an average of 8.9 per cent, but the country’s economic performance has remained modest reflecting both the impact of exogenous shocks and internal problems, according to a WTO Secretariat report on the trade policies and practices of Paraguay published today.

The report notes that further steps appear to be required to accelerate growth and ensure its sustainability. Attracting new investment to improve efficiency and, thus, enhancing the stability of the trade and investment regime are particularly important. The report says that this could be achieved by expanding Paraguay’s multilateral commitments, particularly under the GATS.
  

The WTO report, along with a policy statement by the Government, will be the basis for the Trade Policy Review (TPR) by the Trade Policy Review Body of the WTO.

The following documents are available in MS Word format.

• Secretariat report
  > Contents and summary observations (12 pages, 99KB)
  > Economic environment (13 pages, 502KB)
  > Trade and investment regimes (18 pages, 152KB)
  > Trade policies and practices by measure (57 pages, 689KB)
  > Trade policies by sector (48 pages, 504KB)
  > Appendix tables (28 pages, 1463KB)
    
• Government report (16 pages, 200KB)
    
• Chairperson's concluding remarks
    
• Minutes of the meeting are available approximately 6 weeks after the meeting.
    

Note  back to top

Trade Policy Reviews are an exercise, mandated in the WTO agreements, in which member countries’ trade and related policies are examined and evaluated at regular intervals. Significant developments that may have an impact on the global trading system are also monitored. For each review, two documents are prepared: a policy statement by the government of the member under review, and a detailed report written independently by the WTO Secretariat. These two documents are then discussed by the WTO’s full membership in the Trade Policy Review Body (TPRB). These documents and the proceedings of the TPRB’s meetings are published shortly afterwards.

Print copies of previous TPR publications are available for sale from the WTO Secretariat, Centre William Rappard, 154 rue de Lausanne, 1211 Genève 21 and through the on-line bookshop.

The TPR publications are also available from our co-publisher Bernan Press, 4611-F Assembly Drive, Lanham, MD 20706-4391, United States.

Schedule of forthcoming reviews  back to top

Nigeria: 11 and 13 of May 2005
Ecuador: 8 and 10 June 2005
The Philippines: 5 and 7 July 2005