Seychelles has been praised by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and member states for having made steady progress in implementing its WTO accession commitments and playing an active and constructive role in the multilateral trading system, since becoming the 161st WTO member in April 2015.
The progress made was recognised at the first Trade and Policy Review (TPR) of the island-nation’s policies and practices earlier this month, on December 5 and 7, in Geneva.
Trade Policy Reviews are an exercise to which all WTO member states are subjected, whereby trade and related policies are examined and evaluated. This is done regularly, and in Seychelles’ case, every seven years.
The high-level delegation led by Minister for Finance, National Planning and Trade, Naadir Hassan, were also congratulated on Seychelles’ open trade regime, with one of the lowest most favoured nation (MFN) average applied tariffs among WTO members, at 2.7 percent in 2022, among other policy measures.
In a press briefing yesterday morning, principal secretary (PS) for Trade, Francis Lebon, a member of the delegation, noted that although very demanding, the exercise is also an extremely valuable one in the context of transparency.
Based on the government’s policy statement, and independent report by the WTO secretariat, six member states, namely, Japan, Singapore, China, Canada, the European Union (EU) and America, forwarded 65 questions to Seychelles, all of which were responded to comprehensively and within the timeframe stipulated by the WTO, ahead of the review earlier this month.
“These countries recognised Seychelles’ resilience, the positive performance of the economy, and how Seychelles has bounced back from the Covid pandemic to get to where it is today, as well as the direction in which we are heading, in the economic context,” PS Lebon said.
“However, these countries also recognised Seychelles’ vulnerability, the exposure risks to external shocks, and the fact that as a small country, our ability to diversify the economy is not so easy considering our small population,” Mr Lebon stated.
Seychelles was also commended for the steps taken towards enhancing the foreign investment regime, open to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
Despite being a demanding process, the exercise is a very valuable one in the context of transparency, and which has proven fruitful in terms of opportunities, Mr Lebon noted. Based on the review, Seychelles has received offers with WTO member states offering support and technical assistance to build local capacity to fill the gaps which currently exist, and the development of digitisation and e-commerce, while others have made demands to increase trade.
Big players in the global trade industry including India and Brasil are among those who wish to further develop trade relations with Seychelles. The country will assess its needs with regard to technical assistance to submit to other member states, so as to benefit from the support.
However, in going forward, Seychelles needs to address issues with notifying the WTO of changes within the market, changes in legislation and the legal framework relating to trade and information related to international trade.
Changes to the current legislative framework towards ensuring laws relating to practices such as procurement and the International Trade Zone (ITZ) also need to be updated regularly, to ensure that they are on par with ever-involving trade standards and the industry.
“We are part of the multilateral trading system, and we have given our commitment to remain part of this trade system, and we will continue our efforts so that we continue to make progress on any of the commitments that we have made.”
“In essence, it was a very good TPR review, and we look forward for the next seven years,” Mr Lebon added.
Source: Seychelles Nation
