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PRESS RELEASE: PRESS/TPRB/326

TRADE POLICY REVIEW:

Liberalization and other reforms have continued

El Salvador has continued to liberalize its trade regime since its previous Trade Policy Review in 2003, and has made progress in modernizing customs, eliminating unnecessary licensing requirements, enhancing the transparency of technical regulations and SPS measures, and strengthening the institutional framework for competition policy and government procurement. As part of its liberalization efforts, El Salvador has also entered into three new preferential trade agreements and continues to assign high priority to deepening Central American integration, according to a WTO Secretariat report on the trade policies and practices of El Salvador.

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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.

Economic growth has been modest, and is underpinned by remittances from abroad. In addition, the performance of the manufacturing sector has been below expectations, notwithstanding El Salvador’’s long-standing policy of granting subsidies and fiscal privileges to exporters.

The report says that El Salvador would best address the challenges it faces by taking additional steps to liberalize its trade regime on an MFN basis and reassessing its export strategy with a view to eliminating economic distortions.

The report, along with a policy statement by the Government of El Salvador, will be the basis for the third Trade Policy Review (TPR) of El Salvador by the Trade Policy Review Body of the WTO on 10 and 12 February 2010.

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

Croatia: 24 and 26 March 2010
Armenia: 6 and 8 April 2010
Albania: 28 and 30 April 2010

SEE ALSO    > Full list of previous TPRs

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