PRESS RELEASE
EMBARGO
NOT FOR PUBLICATION, OR DISTRIBUTION BY NEWS AGENCIES UNTIL
1500 GENEVA TIME ( 1300  GMT) 24 SEPTEMBER 2003
PRESS/TPRB/218
24 September 2003
(03-5037)
TRADE POLICY REVIEW: SENEGAL
Reform and liberalization effort s improve economic perfomance
Senegal’s economic performance should continue to benefit from the substantial efforts made
since the launching of a macroeconomic stabilization and structural reform programme in 1994,
enhanced by a strategy to expand investment opportunities, according to a report on the tradepolicies and practices of Senegal released on 24 September by the WTO Secretariat.
Senegal’s trade policy mainly consists of implementing the common trade policy agreed within the
WAEMU (West African Economic and Monetary Union) which until now has seemingly produced a
modest level of subregional economic integration. The report notes that Senegal’s participation in
the multilateral trading system is below expectations, thus exposing the country and its WAEMUpartners to the of risk finding themselves on the margins of the current trade negotiations.
The report also points out that Senegal, a Least-developed Country since 2001, has a vulnerable
rural economy, the services sector, in particular tourism, is facing a number of problems that
hamper its development, and the investment and economic climate is still undermined by a
number of problems relating to administrative  procedures, labour re gulations and lack of
infrastructure.
The WTO report, along with the policy statement by the Government of Senegal, will serve as a
basis for the second Trade Policy Review (TPR) of Senegal by the Trade Policy Review Body of the
WTO on 22 and 24 September 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/tp218e.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 tablesPRESS/TPRB/218
Page 2 of 2
• 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:
Honduras : 29 September, 1 October 2003
Bulgaria : 15, 17 October 2003
Guyana : 29, 31 October 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