WT/TPR/M/391 23 October 2019 (19-6960) Page: 1/36 Trade Policy Review Body 11 and 13 September 2019 TRADE POLICY REVIEW SURINAME MINUTES OF THE MEETING Chairperson: H.E. Mr. Manuel A.J. Teehankee (Philippines) CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS BY THE CHAIRPERSON ....................................................... 2 2 OPENING STATEMENT BY THE REPRESENTATIVE OF SURINAME .................................. 4 3 STATEMENT BY THE DISCUSSANT .............................................................................. 11 4 STATEMENTS BY MEMBERS ........................................................................................ 15 5 REPLIES BY THE REPRESENTATIVE OF SURINAME AND ADDITIONAL COMMENTS ..... 29 6 CONCLUDING REMARKS BY THE CHAIRPERSON ......................................................... 35 Note: Advance written questions and additional questions by WTO Members, and the replies provided by Suriname are reproduced in document WT/TPR/M/391/Add.1 and will be available online at http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/tpr_e/tp_rep_e.htm. WT/TPR/M/391 • Suriname - 2 - 1 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS BY THE CHAIRPERSON 1.1. The third Trade Policy Review of Suriname was held on 11 and 13 September 2019. The Chairperson, H.E. Mr. Manuel Teehankee (Philippines), welcomed the delegation of Suriname, headed by H.E. Mr. Stephen Tsang, Minister of Trade, Industry and Tourism; H.E. Mr. Reggy Nelson, Permanent Representative of Suriname to the WTO; the rest of the delegation; and the discussant, H.E. Mr. Peter Brño (Slovak Republic). 1.2. The Chairperson informed Members that as stated in the Addendum to the Airgram for this meeting (WTO/AIR/TPR/89), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) had requested to attend, as an ad hoc observer, the upcoming Trade Policy Review of Peru. Thus, if there were no objections, he suggested that Members granted UNIDO observer status for this meeting, and accordingly invited the representative of UNIDO to participate in Peru's TPR meeting, as had been done in the past. 1.3. The Chairperson recalled the purpose of trade policy reviews and the main elements of procedures for the meeting. The report by Suriname was contained in document WT/TPR/G/391 and that of the WTO Secretariat in document WT/TPR/S/391. 1.4. Questions by the following delegations were submitted in writing before the deadline: Peru; Canada; European Union; United States; Brazil; Argentina; Iceland; China; and Colombia. The following delegations submitted written questions after the deadline: Indonesia; Singapore; Trinidad and Tobago; and Dominican Republic. 1.5. At the time of the previous Trade Policy Review of Suriname in 2013, Members had commended Suriname for its prudent macroeconomic policies that had enabled it to weather the global economic crisis without resorting to any protectionist measures. They had also appreciated the steps that had been taken to improve the trade and investment environment. At the same time, Members had voiced concerns about outdated national laws and the quality of governance. In particular, many Members had noted that several pieces of legislation were at various stages of development, and that some of them had already been in the process of being prepared at the time of the previous Review in 2004. 1.6. With regard to tariffs, some delegations had welcomed the reduction in the average applied MFN tariff during the review period, but had also noted that some applied tariffs were above bound rates which was a result of adopting CARICOM's common external tariff. Suriname had also been urged to bear in mind the need to comply with other WTO commitments, such as those relating to notifications. 1.7. For the current Review, it was important to note that, since its last TPR, Suriname went through a severe economic crisis triggered by significant commodity terms of trade and internal shocks. In 2015 and 2016, GDP declined by 3.4 and 5.6%, respectively. Inflation peaked in late 2016, at about 60%, public debt levels increased significantly, from 32% of GDP in 2013 to some 80% in 2018, and the current account deficit increased considerably. Per capita GDP in US dollar terms was substantially lower than at the time of the last Review. However, on the positive side, a slow recovery of Suriname's economy was underway since 2017, when real GDP grew by 1.7%. The economy continued to strongly depend on minerals, with 90% of exports being gold and oil. 1.8. As for trade policy, the institutional environment remained largely unchanged since the last Review. Suriname is a member of CARICOM and applies the common external tariff with few exceptions. The policy environment was still characterized by a backlog in the adoption of important trade-related laws and a resort to ad hoc decisions to fill this gap. This continued to impact on the predictability of the trade regime, raising concerns about governance issues and resulting in high costs of doing business, as reflected in some of the advance written questions submitted by Members. 1.9. The Chairperson drew Members' attention to the following additional areas, among others, where Members were interested in having more clarity. These included: the legal framework for investment and the role of InvestSur; measures to improve the business environment, and to increase transparency in the economy and the predictability of the trade regime; tariffs; protection WT/TPR/M/391 • Suriname - 3 - of intellectual property rights; and the state of draft laws on anti-corruption, competition, public procurement, telecommunications, trade facilitation and customs procedures. 1.10. This meeting would be a good opportunity for Members to discuss in greater detail issues of interest to them and of systemic importance to the multilateral trading system. The Chairperson looked forward to a productive exchange of views. WT/TPR/M/391 • Suriname - 4 - 2 OPENING STATEMENT BY THE REPRESENTATIVE OF SURINAME (H.E. MINISTER TSANG) 2.1. I would like to take this opportunity to express our heartfelt sympathies to the Bahamas, our sister CARICOM nation who have been devastated by the hurricane Dorian. The Caribbean Nations are connected not only geographically, but mainly by their people. Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of the Bahamas. They will not stand alone, we have, we must and we will provide further support to rebuild their beautiful island. The devastation on the island is enormous and it may be a testament to the disastrous effect of climate change to the Caribbean nations and to the world. 2.2. We would like to thank the WTO Trade Policy Division for their support and facilitating this two-day session of our Trade Policy Review and allow me to start and to further elaborate on Suriname's trade policy. 2.3. We have received written questions from Brazil, China, Colombia, United States, Canada, Dominican Republic, Iceland, European Union, Peru, Argentina, Indonesia, Singapore, Trinidad and Tobago and these questions were answered and sent to the WTO Secretariat for dissemination to Member States. This is our third Trade Policy Review and I will be elaborating on developments occurred after our second Trade Policy Review in 2013. 2.4. As the Chair pointed out, shortly after our trade policy review, Suriname had an economic recession in 2015 due to the fall of commodity prices for gold and oil. 2.5. This resulted in drastic decrease of our income and a restructuring of our financial economic policy. We lowered government spending dramatically and, in the process, we created a sovereign wealth fund, to prepare for future commodity price drops. 2.6. We also implemented a national procurement policy based on the framework created by the CARICOM. We managed to stabilize our economy without a financial bailout. Today, we are slowly but surely coming out of this crisis. 2.7. Suriname is a country rich in natural resources. We are roughly about 4 times the size of Switzerland, with only 560.000 people. With 93% forest coverage we have the highest percentage of forest coverage in the world, which is pristine Amazon jungle. We export much wood logs from the forest. 2.8. The drop-in commodity prices hit us hard and we could have opted to chop down 1% of the jungle, sell the wood and be out of the crisis much quicker. To put it into perspective, 1% of our forest is about 100 times the total area of Geneva. We could have even gone to 90% forest coverage and still be the highest forest covered country in the world, but we decided to commit the country to maintaining and preserving 93% of our rainforest, in line with the UN SDG 3, 13, 15 and 17 for environmental protection. 2.9. And instead, we made the decision to find alternative ways of generating income from the forest. 2.10. That is why we, the Republic of Suriname, held the first High Forested and Low Deforestation (HFLD) climate finance conference in February this year, with the objectives to strengthen cooperation, collaboration and exchange of knowledge and experience among the HFLD countries. 2.11. The objectives were to: • Develop joint strategies and positions to help maintain our intact forests and preserve forest cover; • Make international communities more aware of the significant global importance of HFLD countries and their productive landscapes in combating climate change; • Share knowledge about technical and financial mechanisms available or in development with regard to climate finance for the HFLD nations; and • Strengthen the payment structure for ecosystem services that will be used to advance sustainable development whilst mitigating the risk of forest destruction and biodiversity loss. WT/TPR/M/391 • Suriname - 5 - 2.12. The drop-in commodities plunged us in an economic crisis, because we were too much dependent on our natural resources from the extractive industries. If one thing, the crisis led to drastic and necessary measures to speed up our economic reform. In a way, the crisis may have been a blessing.