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PRESS RELEASE: PRESS/TPRB/211
14 March 2003

TRADE POLICY REVIEW: CANADA
Sound economic policies have helped to weather global slowdown

The WTO report, along with the policy statement of the Government of Canada, will serve as a basis for the seventh Trade Policy Review (TPR) of Canada by the Trade Policy Review Body of the WTO on 12 and 14 March 2003.

A report on the trade policies and practices of Canada, released March 14 by the WTO Secretariat, says that the country’s sound economic policies and an outward-looking trade regime have allowed Canada to maintain economic growth in the face of the global economic slowdown in particular in the United States, Canada’s main trading partner.

However, the report also notes that, although change is under way, a number of activities remain subject to interventions and possible distortions, notably agriculture, textiles and clothing, steel, telecommunications, audiovisual, air and maritime transport, and insurance.

The following documents are available in MS Word format.

• Secretariat report
  > Corrigendum to Secretariat report  (2 pages, 36KB)
  > Contents and summary observations (10 pages, 72KB)
  > Economic environment (11 pages, 195KB)
  > Trade policy regime: framework and objectives (15 pages, 143KB)
  > Trade policies and practices by measure (66 pages, 477KB)
  > Trade policies by sector (37 pages, 428KB)
  > Appendix tables (11 pages, 194KB)
    
• Government report (21 pages, 98KB)
    
• Chairperson's concluding remarks
    
• Minutes of the meeting are available approximately 6 weeks after the meeting.  

Note  back to top

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 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). These documents and the proceedings of the TPRB’s meetings are published shortly afterwards.

Print copies of previous 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.

The TPR publications are also available from our co-publisher Bernan Press, 4611-F Assembly Drive, Lanham, MD 20706-4391, United States.

Schedule of forthcoming reviews  back to top

Burundi: 2, 4 April 2003
Southern African Customs Union (SACU): 23, 25 April 2003
New Zealand: 12, 14 May 2003