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1500 GENEVA TIME ( 1300  GMT) 14 JULY 2004  
 
PRESS/TPRB/234 
14 July 2004 
 
(04-3002) 
TRADE POLICY REVIEW: SURINAME 
Expanded WTO commitments could foster trade and investment 
Since the mid-1990s, Suriname has gradually reform ed various trade instruments, resulting in an 
increasingly open and transparent trade regime, according to a report on the trade policies and practices of Suriname released July 14 by the WT O Secretariat. These reforms have been carried 
out both autonomously and through Suriname’s participation in the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM), and are taking place against the backdrop of a broader process of 
modernization of Suriname’s legal and institutional framework. 
 So far, however, trade and investment have been stagnant. To reverse this situation, the report says that Suriname needs to step up its efforts to make macroeconomic management more coherent, rationalize state participation in the economy, and introduce structural changes leading to a more entrepreneurial culture and greater market competition. Anchoring past and future 
reforms through expanded multilateral commitment s could greatly enhance their effectiveness, 
thus ensuring that trade and investment take off definitely.  The WTO report, along with a policy statement by the Government of Suriname, will be the basis for the first Trade Policy Review (TPR) of Suriname by the Trade Po licy Review Body of the WTO on 
12 and 14 July 2004, which will take place at the same time as the review of Belize. 
 
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/tp233.htm 
 
• Secretariat report 
> Contents and summary observations  
> Economic environment  > Trade and investment regimes  > Trade policies and practices by measure  > Trade policies by sector  > Appendix tables  
• Government report  
• Chairperson’s concluding remarks  
• Minutes of the meeting (available appr oximately six weeks after the meeting). 
 PRESS/TPRB/234 
Page 2 of 2 
  
Note 
Trade Policy Reviews are an exercise, mandated in the WTO agreements, in which member countries’ trade and related polici es 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 independen tly 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 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/bout iques/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: 
Republic of Korea  : 15 and 17 September 2004 
Rwanda : 28 and 30 September 2004 
 
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