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PRESS/TPRB/221
31 October 2003
(03-5787)
TRADE POLICY REVIEW: GUYANA
Diversification of production and export base will be best achieved
by strengthening economic reform and trade liberalization
Guyana has taken important steps to liberalize its trade and investment regimes in the last 15
years, enhancing its integration into the global economy, but needs to make further efforts to
increase its competitiveness while also seeking to diversify its production and export base to face a
possible further erosion of trade preferences, according to a report on the trade policies andpractices of Guyana released 31 of October by the WTO Secretariat.
The report says that Guyana’s economy, now dependent to a great extent on a few natural
resources, such as sugar, gold, bauxite and rice, has been growing at a very slow pace in recent
years despite the reform efforts undertaken. Mark et access has in general been enhanced under
the process of progressive liberalization in CARICOM (Caribbean Community and Common Market)but the process of integrating the WTO agreements into domestic legislation has not been fully
completed.
The report adds that preferential access to th e markets of the European Union and the United
States is important to Guyana for exports of its traditional products but the country has been
affected in recent years by a deterioration of its terms of trade, compounded by an erosion ofpreferential margins. For these reasons, diversific ation of the economy is generally seen in Guyana
as an imperative, says the report. This can be best achieved by continuing and strengthening the
process of economic reform and trade liberalization underway.
The WTO report, along with a policy statement by the Government of Guyana , will be the basis for
the first Trade Policy Review (TPR) of Guyana by the Trade Policy Review Body of the WTO on 29and 31 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/tp221e.htm
• Secretariat report
> Contents and summary observations
> Economic environment
> Trade policy regime: framework and objectivesPRESS/TPRB/221
Page 2 of 2
> Trade policies and practices by measure
> 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 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). Thesedocuments 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 at
https://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:
Haiti : 4, 6 November 2003
Thailand : 12, 14 November 2003
Chile : 2, 4 December 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#reviews
or follow this path : www.wto.org > trade topics > trade policy reviews
END