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PRESS RELEASE: PRESS/TPRB/241
17 and 19 January 2005

TRADE POLICY REVIEW: JAMAICA

Reducing market distortions could foster growth

Jamaica has made significant efforts to liberalize its trade and investment regime since its first review in 1998, reflecting the importance of trade to its economy. Legislative and institutional improvements that facilitate trade have been adopted, and have enhanced transparency. Market-opening initiatives have also been taken in various key service activities, according to a report on the trade practices and policies of Jamaica published by the WTO Secretariat.

However, economic growth has been slow and per capita income has stagnated, while the high public debt has continued to constrain policy choices. Reassessing the numerous tariff and other tax exemptions currently in use could ease those constraints, and result in more neutral and transparent measures to promote growth.

Jamaica could also enhance the predictability of reforms for traders and investors by increasing its multilateral commitments, in particular concerning trade in services, the report also says.

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 (11 pages, 122KB)
  > Economic environment (17 pages, 527KB)
  > Trade and investment policy regime (18 pages, 163KB)
  > Trade policies and practices by measure (53 pages, 840KB)
  > Trade policies by sector (50 pages, 839KB)
  > Appendix tables (14 pages, 704KB)
    
• Government report (16 pages, 108KB)
    
• 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

Japan: 25 and 27 January 2005
Sierra Leone: 9 and 11 February 2005
Qatar: 21 and 23 of February 2005