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PRESS RELEASE: PRESS/TPRB/302

TRADE POLICY REVIEW:

A successful economy, open to trade and investment

Singapore’s economy, in terms of international trade and foreign investment, remains one of the most open and competitive in the world with an annual average real GDP growth of 7.9% for the last four years, according to a WTO Secretariat report on the trade practices and policies of Singapore.

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This high degree of openness leaves Singapore vulnerable to periodic external shocks, but the economy’s flexibility has enabled it to adjust rapidly to these shocks by improving productivity, and thus international competitiveness, which in turn contributes to economic growth and higher living standards.

In the long term, as city-state of around 4.5 million people, which is heavily dependent on trade in goods in services, Singapore will need to rely more on domestic consumption as a source of growth to help balance fluctuations in external demand and thus reduce its vulnerability to external shocks.

The WTO report, along with a policy statement by the Government of Singapore, will be the basis of the fifth TPR of Singapore by the Trade Policy Review Body of the WTO on 14 and 16 July 2008.

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
  > Economic environment
  > Trade and investment regimes
  > Trade policies and practices by measure
  > Trade policies by sector
  > Appendix tables
    
• Government report
    

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

Barbados: 17 and 19 September 2008
Republic of Korea: 8 and 10 October 2008
Norway: 22 and 24 October 2008

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