Dominica PM speaks out on WTO at UN Assembly

Dominica's PM Pierre Charles

Friday, September 26, 2003

ROSEAU, Dominica: Prime Minister of Dominica, Mr. Pierre Charles, has taken the World Trade Organization's plan to end preferential treatment for banana export to the European Union, to the United Nations.

In his address to the UN General Assembly yesterday, Mr. Charles said Dominica and its sister islands were adversely affected by the WTO banana regime, which had contributed to an economic crisis in many Caribbean countries. 

The world has changed considerably, PM Charles, said, adding that in contrast institutions for global governance - the UN, World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the WTO - continued to operate on outdated political and economic foundations. 

In Dominica, the situation had necessitated implementation of an austerity programme in tandem with a stand-by agreement with the IMF, he said. In addition, Prime Minister Charles said the outcome of the WTO meeting in Cancún had not been encouraging and in this connection, Dominica joined other developing nations in the call for a drastic reduction of agricultural subsidies in the developed countries.

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