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PRESS/TPRB/326 
10 February 2010 
 
(10-0726) 
TRADE POLICY REVIEW: EL SALVADOR 
Liberalization has moved forward bu t fiscal privileges still distort 
economic incentives  
El Salvador has continued to liberalize its trade regime since its previous Trade Policy Review in 
2003, and has made progress in modernizing customs, eliminating unnecessary licensing requirements, enhancing the transparency of technical regulations and SPS measures, and 
strengthening the institutional framework for competition policy and government procurement. As 
part of its liberalization efforts, El Salvador has also entered into three new preferential trade agreements and continues to assign high priority to deepening Central American integration, 
according to a WTO Secretariat report on the trade policies and practices of El Salvador. 
 Economic growth has been modest, and is underpi nned by remittances from abroad. In addition, 
the performance of the manufacturing sector has been below expectations, notwithstanding El 
Salvador’’s long-standing policy of granting subsidies and fiscal privileges to exporters.  
The report says that El Salvador would best address the challenges it faces by taking additional 
steps to liberalize its trade regime on an MFN basis and reassessing its export strategy with a view to eliminating economic distortions. 
 
The report, along with a policy statement by the Go vernment of El Salvador , will be the basis for 
the third Trade Policy Review (TPR) of El Salvador by the Trade Policy Review Body of the WTO on 
10 and 12 February 2010. 
 
The following documents are available in MS Wo rd format on the WTO web-site. They can be 
downloaded at http://www.wto.org/english/ tratop_e/tpr_e/tp326_e.htm  
• Secretariat reports 
> Contents and summary observations  
> Economic environment  
> Trade and investment regimes  > Trade policies and practices by measure  
> Trade policies by sector  
> Appendix tables  
• Report by the Government of El Salvador  
• Chairperson’’s concluding remarks  
• Minutes of the meeting (available appr oximately six weeks after the meeting). PRESS/TPRB/326 
Page 2 of 2 
 
 
Note 
Trade Policy Reviews are an exercise, mandated in the WTO Agreement, in which member countries’’ trade and related policies 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 stat ement 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). 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 
http://onlinebookshop.wto.org/shop/articles.asp?Id_Rayon=38
 
or follow this path :  
www.wto.org >resources > publications > trade policy reviews  
 The TPR publications are also available from our co-publisher Bernan  
Press, 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, MD 20706-4346, United  
States. Please call 1-800-865-3457 or e-mail: customercare@bernan.com.” 
Next reviews: 
Croatia: 24 and 26 March 2010 
Armenia: 6 and 8 April 2010 
Albania: 28 and 30 April 2010 
 
For a full list of previous trade policy reviews and the full programme of future reviews go to 
http://www.wto.org/english/trat op_e/tpr_e/tpr_ e.htm#reviews 
or follow this path : www.wto.org > trade topics > trade policy reviews 
  
 
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