UN General Assembly
2003

of these areas — of direct relevance to the question of trade preferences — is the ongoing debate in the World Trade Organization concerning the Work Programme on Small Economies, a debate in which small island developing states, regrettably, have not been able to advocate their case under the SIDS designation. Cape Verde has again been deemed to qualify for graduation from least developed country (LDC) status under the criteria and graduation rules used by the Committee for Development Policy and the Economic and Social Council. As stressed by my delegation in the substantive session of the Council in July, we feel that a decision to graduate Cape Verde from least developed country status at this juncture would give the international community a gravely incorrect impression of our structural progress and prosperity, whereas Cape Verde remains one of the most economically vulnerable and aid-dependent countries in the world. Here we are faced with a peculiar paradox: in the context of its support to small island developing states the United Nations system recognizes the permanent