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PRESS RELEASE: PRESS/TPRB/237
13 October 2004

TRADE POLICY REVIEW: NORWAY

A very open trade regime for industrial goods but mostly protected for agriculture

Norway’s trade policy regime remains generally open with the principal exception of agriculture where high tariffs contrast with an almost duty free regime for industrial goods, according to a report on the trade policies and practices of Norway released on October 13 by the WTO Secretariat.

The report says that continued structural reforms, including privatization, and further tariff reductions in agriculture would contribute to better resource allocation in the Norwegian economy. Also, improvements of Norway’s multilateral commitments, both on goods and services, would increase the predictability of the trade regime.

The WTO report, along with a policy statement by the Government of Norway, will be the basis for the fourth Trade Policy Review (TPR) of Norway by the Trade Policy Review Body of the WTO on 11 and 13 October 2004.

The WTO report, along with a policy statement by the Government, will be the basis for the Trade Policy Review (TPR) by the Trade Policy Review Body of the WTO.

The following documents are available in MS Word format.

• Secretariat report
  > Contents and summary observations (10 pages, 185KB)
  > Economic environment (11 pages, 488KB)
  > Trade and investment regimes (12 pages, 159KB)
  > Trade policies and practices by measure (45 pages, 1079KB)
  > Trade policies by sector (40 pages,787xKB)
  > Appendix tables (20 pages, 1220KB)
    
• Government report (13 pages, 99KB)
    
• 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

European Union : 25 and 27 October 2004
Jamaica : 8 and 10 November 2004
Brazil : 29 November and 1 December 2004