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PRESS RELEASE: PRESS/TPRB/251
14 and 16 of September 2005

TRADE POLICY REVIEW: TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

Strong growth but achieving ambitious goals requires further reforms

Since its last review in 1998, trade has played a crucial role in supporting Trinidad and Tobago’s rapid economic growth. The country’s rich natural endowments, its attractiveness as an investment destination and favorable developments in world markets, specially in the hydrocarbons sector, have produced a strong increase in GDP growth and per capita income, according to a WTO Secretariat report on the trade policies and practices of Trinidad and Tobago.

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> More on Trinidad and Tobago
 

The report notes that further reform and implementation efforts in areas such as telecommunications, port administration and financial services are crucial for Trinidad an Tobago to achieve its ambitious objectives of becoming a knowledge-based economy an a regional economic hub.

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 (10 pages, 114KB)
  > Economic environment (13 pages, 461KB)
  > Trade policy regime: framework and objectives (13 pages, 124KB)
  > Trade policies and practices by measure (48 pages, 755KB)
  > Trade policies by sector (38 pages, 483KB)
  > Appendix tables (10 pages, 618KB)
    
• Government report (15 pages, 271KB)
    
• Revisions of the above documents may be issued approximately 2 weeks after the meeting.
    
• Chairperson's concluding remarks
    
• Minutes of the meeting are available approximately 6 weeks after the meeting.
    
• Questions and answers by WTO Members 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

Tunisia: 5 and 7 October 2005
Guinea: 12 and 14 October 2005
Bolivia: 1 and 3 November 2005