WTO satisfied with mission to review Seychelles’ trade policy |09 April 2022
The closing session of the meeting (Photo: Thomas Meriton)
The World Trade Organisation’s mission to conduct a review of our country’s trade policy has been successful, the body’s director of trade policy review division, Willy Alfredo, has said.
Mr Alfredo made the comment during a press briefing on the matter at the end of the mission’s review on Wednesday this week. Also present was the principal secretary for trade within the Ministry of Finance, National Planning and Trade, Ronald Cafrine.
The aim of reviewing Seychelles’ trade policy was to identify what has been done in terms of policies in place for trading and business attraction in line with WTO’s transparency and good governance in the trade sector. It will allow the 164 WTO members to better understand how the country conducts its trade policies.
Mr Alfredo was among a four-member delegation from WTO in the country to conduct the three-day review mission which started on April 4, 2022.
During their mission, the WTO delegation held discussions with various ministries and government agencies and went through the country's current trade-related legislative, policies and institutional frameworks in the various sectors of the economy.
It is the first time that such review has been done since the country entered the WTO in 2015 as the 161st member.
“I think that we have been successful in achieving the objectives we fixed for ourselves, the first one being to explain to all experts in the different ministries and agencies of the work that we have to do in the coming months with a view to prepare this very comprehensive report that will be submitted to all 164 members of the WTO who will be doing their own assessment of how the country conducts its trade policy. Secondly because we have been able to obtain a lot of information on the policies and practices in many different areas of the economy in general,” Mr Alfredo said.
A preliminary report of the trade policy review is expected to come out in July in time for further discussion with the returning delegation.
The report will thereafter be submitted to the 164 WTO members for their own analysis and further queries with the local authorities until it is put forward for the appraisal session with the members between December 5-7, 2022 in Geneva.
Mr Alfredo noted that Seychelles is the first country undergoing the trade policy review session with WTO and 17 other countries are in line for the same policy review from now until December 2022.
“I am fully confident that with the amount of commitment and help that was provided to us during the three days, we will obtain a very good result. We believe that in the course of the seven years, Seychelles as a young member has made good work in relation to its trade policy. One very important outcome is the fact that Seychelles has put in place an inter-ministerial committee that will enhance coordination and coherence of different actions of the government,” he added.
Mr Alfredo said that during the past seven years, WTO has assisted the country with technical support, capacity building and information sharing.
For his part, Mr Cafrine said that the policy review will help the country see the good and bad side of the trade policy to which adjustments can be made to improve the policy further.
He added that the country will be waiting for the outcome of the report and for the appraisal session in December where the focus of the 164 WTO members will be on our country’s trade policies and practices.
Mr Cafrine stated that the trade division is seeking the support of cabinet for the country’s ongoing trade policy review process.
He noted that the national coordination committee in place will ensure the flow of information to facilitate trade and to attract investors.
Patrick Joubert