Today, September 4, 2024, His Excellency Dr Leslie Satruken Ramsammy presented his letter of Credence to Her Excellency Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), accrediting him as Permanent Representative to the WTO with effect from August 1, 2024.
Prior to the brief presentation of his letter of Credence, Ambassador Ramsammy conveyed Guyana’s gratitude to Dr Ngozi and the secretariat staff for the technical capacity-building opportunities afforded to us as a small economy and the attendant challenges of human resources constraints. He also shared that Guyana will be benefiting from training workshops on specific WTO issues scheduled for later this year, and early in 2025 in Georgetown.
Ambassador Ramsammy highlighted Guyana’s regional and global leadership roles in Food and Nutrition Security, Climate and Environment Security and Energy Security. He also spoke of Guyana’s efforts to diversify its economy, and highlighted the careful efforts the country is undertaking to avoid the mistakes some countries have made in pursing an “oil” economy at the expense of a diversified economy.
Dr Ngozi lauded Guyana for the work the Government is doing in food and nutrition security, particularly helping in the reduction of CARICOM’s food import bill by 11 per cent to date, which forms part of the initiative to reduce CARICOM’s food import bill by 25 per cent by 2025 (25 by 25 initiative).
Both sides reiterated the importance of digital trade and further development of the services sector, as digitally delivered service is the future of trade.
Guyana has been a WTO member since 1 January 1995 and a member of GATT since 5 July 1966. Guyana remains supportive of the work of the WTO and the multilateral trading system, believing in an equitable and transparent system. Thus, we take our role as the CARICOM Ministerial Spokesperson on WTO matters very seriously.
Ambassador Ramsammy was accompanied by Mr. Colin Luckie, First Secretary, Guyana’s Permanent Mission to the WTO.
