Trade Policy Review of Mauritius April 23 and 25, 2008
Statement by the Republic of Korea Thank you, Mr. Chairman,
I would like to join previous speakers in welcoming Mauritius delegation led by HE.
Anard Neewar, Secretary for Foreign Affairs. My thanks also go to Mr. Henning Storo from Norway for this valuable contribution for this review.
Mr. Chairman, taking this opportunity, I would like to express that the Korean government is very pleased to note that bilateral trade between Korea and Mauritius has steadily grown in recent years, reaching about 40 million dollars in 2007. Korea believes there is a greater potential for further economic cooperation between the two countries. And we hope to see the further development of trade relations. Korea also welcomes the conclusion of bilateral investment treaty last year. Korea already ratified the treaty and hope that Mauritius will ratify the treaty in the near future.
Korea expects that through the signing of this treaty, bilateral investment will also flourish in the years to come.
In this regard, the Korean government expresses its appreciation regarding vigorous efforts made by the Mauritius government to improve its investment climate in recent years.
On its economic and trade policy aspects, Korea would like simply to congratulate Mauritius’s strong economic performance during the period under review and hope to see this trend would continue.
Korea also would like to express our general appreciation regarding active trade liberalization efforts pursued by Mauritius government, among others, reduction in average simple tariff rate, the improvement of customs clearance procedure and the enactment of various IPR related laws. Korea would like to encourage Mauritius to further accelerate its trade and economic reform agenda and hope to see its successful outcome in the next TPR.
Finally, on its tariff regime, Korea would like to echo other delegations in encouraging Mauritius to increase its binding rate to enhance predictability of its trade regime while reducing gap between applied and bound tariff rate.
Let me conclude my remarks by wishing Mauritius delegation successful TPR.
Thank you.
