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PRESS RELEASE: PRESS/TPRB/261
22 and 24 March 2006

TRADE POLICY REVIEW: UNITED STATES

Openness fuels solid economic growth

The United States has undergone solid economic growth since its last Trade Policy Review in 2004, aided by the openness and transparency of its trade regime which has supported the continuous drive for change and efficiency characteristic of the US economy as a whole, according to a WTO Secretariat report on the trade policies and practices of the United States.

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During the period under review, the United States, the world’s largest import market and a key engine of global growth, continued making incremental changes to its trade regime, including liberalization on an MFN and preferential bases. The report notes, nonetheless, that market access barriers and other distorting measures, notably subsidies, persist in a few but important areas, and that addressing these distortions would benefit U.S. consumers and taxpayers and help strengthen the global economy.

The report also says that it is important to pre-empt possible protectionist sentiment, which may require efforts in the United States, including through a reduction in public sector absorption, and in the rest of the world, through increased spending.

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, 114KB)
  > Recent economic developments (12 pages, 345KB)
  > Developments in trade and investment policy (11 pages, 117KB)
  > Trade policies and practices by measure (60 pages, 533KB)
  > Trade policies by sector (39 pages, 323KB)
  > Appendix tables (20 pages, 1061KB)
    
• Government report (36 pages, 297KB)
    
• 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

China: 19 and 21 April 2006
United Arab Emirates: 24 and 26 April 2006
Uruguay: 17 and 19 May 2006