Guyana’s Leslie Ramsammy new Chair of WTO Negotiating Group on Rules

Guyana’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations (UN) Office and other international organisations in Geneva, Ambassador Dr Leslie Ramsammy has been appointed as chair to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Negotiating Group on Rules.

On its website, it was stated that WTO Negotiating Group on Rules aims to clarify and improve the existing disciplines on Anti-Dumping, Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, including Fisheries Subsidies and Regional Trade Agreements.

The WTO’s Negotiating Group on Rules (NGR) was established in February 2002 pursuant to the negotiating mandate on “WTO Rules” agreed at the WTO’s 4th Ministerial Conference in Doha. That original negotiating mandate was to clarify and improve the existing disciplines (the respective WTO Agreements) on anti-dumping and countervailing measures, and on subsidies including fisheries subsidies, as well as in respect of regional trade agreements.

According to the WTO website, during the initial years of the negotiations, the NGR received proposals concerning, and actively worked on all areas of the mandate, including fisheries subsidies.

Following the WTO’s 10th Ministerial Conference in Nairobi in 2015, fisheries subsidies has been the only active area of work in the NGR. The work of the NGR is supervised by the Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC), which operates under the authority of the WTO’s General Council. The TNC establishes negotiating procedures and monitors the progress of negotiations and the chair of the NGR provides periodic reports to the TNC.