The 3rd Trade Policy Review of Guyana (15 and 17 September 2015) Statement by the Republic of Korea
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
We would like to join the previous speakers in extending a warm welcome to the delegation of Guyana for its third trade policy review, and especially thank Vice- President Mr. Carl B. Greenidge for his comprehensive presentation. Our special thanks go as well to Ambassador Eduardo Sperisen-Yurt (of Guatemala) for his contribution as a discussant and to the Secretariat for its informative report.
We are pleased to note that Korea and Guyana have established close economic ties.
The bilateral trade volume reached 24 million US dollars in 2014. Korea hopes that its economic partnership with Guyana will continue to grow and develop in the future.
Mr. Chairman, turning to Guyana’s overall economy, we wish to note that Guyanese economic performance has improved during the review period due to the increase of inward FDI and the expansion of private sector credit. Since its second TPR in 2009, the Guyanese economy has continued to grow with an average 4.7% growth rate. In 2014, real GDP is expected to have expanded by 5.6% and per capita GDP is estimated at close to 4,000 US dollars, up from 2,360 dollars in 2009. Given the global economic difficulties, these achievements are indeed impressive.
Mr. Chairman, despite these positive achievements, there is room for Guyana to enhance its competitiveness. Specifically, we would put forward that Guyana should
continue to further diversify its economy and reduce its high dependency on exports of some primary commodities such as sugar, rice and gold, which makes it vulnerable to the fluctuation of international food and raw material prices. While we appreciate Guyana’s efforts towards its structural reforms through some policies including the Agriculture Export Diversification Program followed by the National Agriculture Development Strategy, a further push for its economic diversification seems very much needed in order to achieve sustainable growth.
In addition, with respect to the trade policies of Guyana, we also note that there is a significant gap between the overall bound tariff rates and applied MFN tariff rates. It would be advisable to reduce the gap to enhance the predictability of trade.
Mr. Chairman, it is our hope that Guyana will continue to actively participate in not only strengthening the WTO multilateral trading system as a whole, but also advancing the DDA negotiations. We also hope that Guyana will submit its Category A commitments and acceptance of the instrument preferably by the MC-10.
With this, we would like to conclude by expressing our sincere appreciation to the Guyanese delegation for its hard work and wish Guyana every success in its TPR.
Thank you.
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