Caribbean Trade Law and Development

Tag: Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

  • OECS WTO members underwent 4th WTO Trade Policy Review this week

    OECS WTO members underwent 4th WTO Trade Policy Review this week

    Alicia Nicholls

    On May 3-5, 2023, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) completed its fourth review of the trade policies and practices of the six Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) WTO members. These are Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The OECS delegation was led by the Honourable Everly Paul Chet Greene, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Antigua and Barbuda, and Chair of the OECS Council of Ministers of Trade. The discussant was Her Excellency Ambassador Nadia Theodore, Permanent Representative of Canada to the WTO.

    WTO members, meeting as the Trade Policy Review Body, reviewed the WTO Secretariat’s Report and the reports from the Governments of those six countries. During the meeting, WTO members had the opportunity to seek clarity from the OECS delegation on various issues relating to their trade policies and practices. The Chairperson’s concluding remarks stated that 24 delegations had taken the floor over the two-day meeting and 169 advance written questions from 12 delegations had been submitted for the review.

    According to the chairperson’s concluding remarks, the OECS members were applauded for “the constructive role that the OECS-WTO Members play in the multilateral trading system” despite their small size. They also received praise for their open trade and investment regimes and strong support of environmental action. However, major concerns raised surrounded implementation of commitments under WTO agreements and the backlog in compliance with their WTO notifications. It was pointed out in the Secretariat report that this was likely because of capacity constraints and the fall-out from the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The OECS is a regional intergovernmental organisation and subregional integration movement in the Caribbean region which was formed in 1981 with the signing of the Treaty of Basseterre, subsequently revised. All OECS members are members of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). Besides the six members mentioned (all six are sovereign States), it also includes a non-sovereign full member, Montserrat. These full members are part of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) and therefore share a common currency, the Eastern Caribbean dollar. Its associate members are non-sovereigns: British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Martinique and Guadeloupe.

    The TPR reports are made publicly available and are a rich source of information for trade analysts and potential investors of a country’s trade policies and its general trading and macroeconomic environment. The TPRB chairperson’s concluding remarks are released shortly after. The minutes of the meeting, as well as members questions, are also released about six weeks after the conclusion of the review.

    You can read the report and other documents here.

    Alicia Nicholls, B.Sc., M.Sc, LL.B. is an international trade specialist and founder of the Caribbean Trade Law and Development blog http://www.caribbeantradelaw.com.

  • St. Vincent & the Grenadines ratifies WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement; Four more ratifications to go

    St. Vincent & the Grenadines ratifies WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement; Four more ratifications to go

    Source: Pixabay

    Alicia Nicholls

    On January 9, 2017, the Caribbean island nation of St. Vincent & the Grenadines became the 106th country to ratify the World Trade Organisation’s Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA). Only four more ratifications are needed in order to bring the Agreement into force (two-thirds of the WTO membership, i.e. 110 members).

    The first multilateral trade agreement to be agreed since the establishment of the WTO in 1994, the Trade Facilitation Agreement was concluded at the Bali Ministerial in 2013. It aims, in a nutshell, to speed up the process of the movement of goods across  national borders.

    As the World Bank’s Annual Doing Business Reports show, countries’ customs procedures can vary from a few to a multiplicity of steps, which can significantly increase the amount of time goods take to clear borders, which increases costs to both suppliers and consumers. As supply chains become  increasingly globalised, so is the need for more expeditious trade flows and standardisation of customs procedures. The Trade Facilitation Agreement’s provisions provide standards which were inspired by international best practices.

    Developing countries and Least Developed Countries (LDCs) have the option to determine their pace of implementation by designating each of the provisions according to one of three categories: A,B,C, with A being the commitments each country can undertake as soon as the Agreement comes into force. The Agreement also includes provisions on customs cooperation. A Trade Facilitation Facility was also created at the request of developing countries to assist them and Least Developed Countries in implementing the Agreement.

    WTO economists in the World Trade Report 2015 estimated that the Agreement would lower members’ trade costs by an estimated 14.3% on average. So far besides St. Vincent & the Grenadines, the following CARICOM countries have ratified the TFA: Trinidad & Tobago, Belize, Guyana,  Grenada, Jamaica, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia and Dominica.

    Alicia Nicholls, B.Sc., M.Sc., LL.B., is a trade and development consultant with a keen interest in sustainable development, international law and trade. You can also read more of her commentaries and follow her on Twitter @LicyLaw.