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PRESS RELEASE: PRESS/TPRB/305

TRADE POLICY REVIEW:

Strong economic performance but agricultural reform desirable

Norway’s domestic economy has performed strongly since its previous Trade Policy Review in 2004 thanks to rising export prices, a generally liberal import regime and sound macroeconomic policies. Norway has continued to undertake reforms, often driven by its participation in the European Economic Area (EEA) , which has helped add flexibility to the Norwegian economy and enhance market competition, according to a WTO Secretariat report on the trade policies and practices of Norway.

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While market access for non-agricultural products is all but fully open, domestically produced agricultural goods remain heavily assisted, contributing to high food prices. Taking steps to reduce such assistance would align agricultural policy with the market based-solutions pursued in other sectors, which have been key to Norway’s prosperity.

The report also suggest that Norway should close the gap between the treatment it grants to its EEA and other WTO partners by applying reforms on an MFN basis and securing them in the WTO to prevent trade and investment distortions. The report notes that barriers to foreign investment persist in some sectors.

The WTO report, along with a policy statement by the Government of Norway, will be the basis for the fifth TPR of Norway by the Trade Policy Review Body of the WTO on 22 and 24 October 2008.

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
  > Economic environment
  > Trade and investment regimes
  > Trade policies and practices by measure
  > Trade policies by sector
  > Appendix tables
    
• Government report
    

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

Jordan: 10 and 12 November 2008
Dominican Republic: 24 and 26 November 2008
Liechtenstein and Switzerland: 15 and 17 December 2008

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