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PRESS RELEASE: PRESS/TPRB/253
12 and 14 October 2005

TRADE POLICY REVIEW: REPUBLIC OF GUINEA

Improved trade regime but good governance and trade diversification remain major challenges

Guinea has generally improved its trade regime since the last review took place in 1999, in particular by unifying the tariff in 2005 upon implementing the reform agreed with other members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), according to a WTO Secretariat Report on the Trade Policies and Practices of the Republic of Guinea.

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> More on Republic of Guinea

Guinea’s trade policy is now aimed at increasing the contribution that trade makes to economic growth by diversifying and boosting exports, especially those of the agricultural, fisheries and non-mining sectors

The report notes that good governance, diversification of exports from dependence on minerals and fiscal reform are among the main challenges for the Republic of Guinea to emerge from its economic crisis and successfully reduce poverty.

Guinea, a Least Developed Country (LDC), has not attracted interest from foreign and domestic investors with the exception of the mining sector, in part due to a weak legal and regulatory framework for private transactions, and also to the poor quality of public services and infrastructure.

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 (13 pages, 103KB)
  > Economic environment (10 pages, 220KB)
  > Legal and institutional framework of the foreign trade and investment regimes (16 pages, 160KB)
  > Trade policy by measure (27 pages, 484KB)
  > Trade policy by sector (23 pages, 241KB)
  > Appendix tables (9 pages, 475KB)
    
• Government report (30 pages, 194KB)
    
• Revisions of the above documents may be issued approximately 2 weeks after the meeting.
    
• Chairperson's concluding remarks
    
• Minutes of the meeting are available approximately 6 weeks after the meeting.
    
• Questions and answers by WTO Members 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

Bolivia: 1 and 3 November 2005
Romania: 28 and 30 November 2005