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PRESS/TPRB/310 
4 February 2009 
 
(09-0458) 
 
TRADE POLICY REVIEW: GUATEMALA 
Gains from liberalization could be enlarged by further 
strengthening competition and the regulatory framework 
Since its last review in 2002, Guatemala has continued to place trade liberalization at the core of 
its development strategy, taking measures such as the streamlining of customs procedures, 
lowering tariffs, and adopting new government  procurement and intellectual property rights 
legislation;  these measures have helped expand trade and investment, according to a WTO Secretariat report on the trade policies and practices of Guatemala. 
 
The report states that economic expansion needs to  be sustained and increased in order to achieve 
improvements in living standards, which in turn requires keeping up the ongoing efforts designed 
to strengthen competition and the regulatory framework in sectors such as telecommunications, 
financial services and maritime transport.  
The WTO report also notes that Guatemala offers fiscal concessions which include export subsidies, 
and observes that it would be useful to define a concrete strategy to minimize the transition costs to a subsidy-free regime. 
 
The WTO report, along with a policy statement by the Government of Guatemala, will be the basis 
for the second TPR of Guatemala by the Trade Polic y Review Body of the WTO on 4 and 6 February 
2009. 
 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/tp310_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 Guatemala 
• Chairperson’s concluding remarks  
• Minutes of the meeting (available appr oximately six weeks after the meeting). PRESS/TPRB/310 
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 
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: 
Japan: 18 and 20 February 2009 
Brazil: 9 and 11 March 2009 
Fiji: 25 and 27 March 2009 
 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