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PRESS/TPRB/219
1 October 2003
(03-5142)
TRADE POLICY REVIEW: HONDURAS
Further reforms would help to improve growth
The important measures taken by Honduras in recent years to liberalize trade and investment
have produced only moderate results, and fu rther reforms would help to raise the country’s
modest rate of economic growth, according to a report on the trade policies and practices of
Honduras released on 1 October by the WTO Secretariat.
New laws have been passed in key areas and significant structural changes have taken place.
Free-trade zones have become important generators of employment and investment, and
transformed manufactures into a key export. However, the zones’ long-term effectiveness may
need reconsideration in the light of Honduras’s low growth and new factors which might come intoplay.
The report also points out that Honduras, with one of the lowest per capita GDPs in Latin America,
depends heavily on remittances from Hondurans living abroad, and export diversification remains
limited. While expanding its multilateral commitments would help Honduras lock-in its recent
reforms, its growing participation in preferential agreements is straining its institutional capacity.
The WTO report, along with the policy statement by the Government of Honduras, will serve as a
basis for the first Trade Policy Review (TPR) of Honduras by the Trade Policy Review Body of theWTO on 29 September and 1 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/tp219e.htm
• Secretariat report
> Contents and summary observations
> Economic environment
> Trade policy regime: framework and objectives> 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).PRESS/TPRB/219
Page 2 of 2
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:
Bulgaria : 15, 17 October 2003
Guyana : 29, 31 October 2003
Haiti : 4, 6 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#reviews
or follow this path : www.wto.org > trade topics > trade policy reviews
END