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PRESS RELEASE: PRESS/TPRB/222
6 November 2003

TRADE POLICY REVIEW: HAITI

Socio-political stability would help Haiti to benefit from its liberalization efforts

The WTO report, along with a policy statement by the Government of Haiti, will be the basis for the first Trade Policy Review (TPR) of Haiti by the Trade Policy Review Body of the WTO on 4 and 6 November 2003.

Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world, has implemented reforms that have greatly liberalized its economy and made it one of the most open in Latin America and the Caribbean; nevertheless, the implementation of the structural component of the reforms has not followed and this has had a negative impact on the economy’s performance, according to a report on the trade policies and practices of Haiti released November 6 by the WTO Secretariat.

The report says that the priority would currently appear to be socio-political stability that would allow Haiti to proceed with its reforms and to fully exploit non-reciprocal preferential treatment provided by developed countries. Adapting domestic legislation to the reforms already implemented, some adjustments in taxation and other measures, including improving Haiti’s multilateral commitments on both goods and services, would improve the transparency and credibility of its trade regime.

The report adds that it is important that the international community support the liberalization efforts made unilaterally by Haiti under difficult socio-political circumstances and give it all the assistance and support needed to increase its participation in the multilateral trading system.

The following documents are available in MS Word format.

• Secretariat report
  > Contents and summary observations (12 pages, 90KB)
  > Economic environment (11 pages, 289KB)
  > Trade policy regime: framework and objectives (19 pages, 136KB)
  > Trade policies and practices by measure (22 pages, 273KB)
  > Trade policies by sector (26 pages, 195KB)
  > Appendix tables (10 pages, 133KB)
    
• Government report (21 pages, 184KB)
    
• 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

Thailand: 12, 14 November 2003
Chile: 2, 4 December 2003
Turkey: 17, 19 December 2003