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1400 GENEVA TIME ( 1200 GMT)  7 JUNE 2006  
 
PRESS/TPRB/265 
7 June 2006 
 
(06-2696) 
TRADE POLICY REVIEW: ICELAND 
Openness and specialization have led to high living standards 
Iceland's standard of living is among the world's hi ghest, in part due to the overall openness of its 
economy, which has allowed Iceland to reap significant benefits from specialization and trade 
according to a report on the trade policies an d practices of Iceland published by the WTO 
Secretariat.    
Iceland has continued to diversify its economy and undertaken macroeconomic and liberalising 
reforms over the last six years.  Many of these re forms have been driven by Iceland's participation 
in the European Economic Area (EEA).  This has widened the gap between the treatment Iceland 
affords to its EEA partners and to other WTO Members in various areas.  The report suggests that 
closing this gap by applying reforms on an MFN basis, and securing them in the WTO, would help reduce remaining distortions, enhance competit ion in the domestic market, and prevent over-
reliance on the EEA market. 
 The report also calls for Iceland to take further steps to reduce agricultural support and protection, 
in particular in the dairy and lamb sectors, which could bring economic benefits and help align 
agricultural policy with the market-based solutions implemented in other sectors.  
The report, along with a policy statement by the Go vernment of Iceland, wi ll be the basis for the 
third Trade Policy Review (TPR) of Iceland by th e Trade Policy Review Body of the WTO on 7 and 9 
June 2006. 
 
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/tp265.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  PRESS/TPRB/265 
Page 2 of 2 
 
 • Chairperson’s concluding remarks  
• Minutes of the meeting (available appr oximately 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 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 
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: 
Chinese Taipei : 20 and 22 June 2006 
Togo: 3 and 5 July 2006 
Nicaragua : 24 and 26 July 2006 
 
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 
 
 
END