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1500 GENEVA TIME ( 1300 GMT ) 17 OCTOBER 2003
PRESS/TPRB/220
17 October 2003
(03-5483)
TRADE POLICY REVIEW: BULGARIA
Further consolidation of reforms would enhance benefits.
Bulgaria has undertaken significant reforms including, liberalization of its trade policies, since
acceding to the WTO in 1996. More recently, the reform process has been accelerated by
Bulgaria’s goal of joining the European Union in 2007. The resulting more open and competitive
trade regime has contributed to Bulgaria’s notable macroeconomic recovery since 1997, and
increased its trade with the rest of the world, in  particular from preferential regional sources.
A report on the trade policies and practices of Bulgaria, released on 17 October by the WTO
Secretariat, notes that the broad trade policy reforms undertaken by Bulgaria cover its customs,
tariff, import licensing, contingent trade instruments, standards, government procurement, trade-related intellectual property, and services regi mes. Sectoral reforms implemented include land
restitution in the agricultural sector, and privatization of most state-owned enterprises in the
manufacturing, financial and tourism sectors.
Despite the positive effects of reform on the macroeconomic and trade environment, maintaining
sustained economic growth and reducing wide spread unemployment and poverty remain major
economic challenges. Reducing the gap between Bulgaria’s applied and bound MFN tariff rates
would enhance the predictability of the trade regime for goods. Furthermore, consolidation and
acceleration of structural reforms in such areas as the judicial system and in the energy andagricultural sectors would serve to increase the benefits from a more liberal trade regime.
The WTO report, along with a policy statement by the Government of Bulgaria, will be the basis for
the first Trade Policy Review (TPR) of Bulgaria by the Trade Policy Review Body of the WTO on 15
and 17 October 2003.
The following documents are available in MS Word format on the WTO web-site. They can be
downloaded at http://www.wto.org/english/ tratop_e/tpr_e/tp220e.htm
• Secretariat report
> Contents and summary observations
> Economic environment> Trade policy regime: framework and objectives
> Trade policies and practices by measurePRESS/TPRB/220
Page 2 of 2
> Trade policies by sector
> Appendix tables
• Government report
• Chairperson’s concluding remarks
• Minutes of the meeting (available approximately six weeks after the meeting).
Note
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 gl obal trading system are also monitored. For each
review, two documents are prepared: a policy statement by the government of the member underreview, 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 publishe d shortly afterwards.
Print copies of the 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 athttps://secure.vtx.ch/shop/boutiques/wto_index_boutique.html  or follow this path :
www.wto.org >resources > publications > trade policy reviews
The TPR publications are also available from our co-publisher Bernan Press , 4611-F Assembly
Drive, Lanham, MD 20706-4391, United States
Next reviews:
Guyana : 29, 31 October 2003
Haiti : 4, 6 November 2003
Thailand : 12, 14 November 2003
For a full list of previous trade policy reviews and the full programme of future reviews go to
http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/tpr_e/tpr_e.htm#reviewsor follow this path : www.wto.org > trade topics > trade policy reviews
END