WTO urges easing trade policy for tsunami-hit countries

WTO urges easing trade policy for tsunami-hit countries

Agence France-Presse, Geneva

The World Trade Organization (WTO) on Thursday urged its
member states to consider opening up their markets to imports
from countries hit by the deadly tsunami in the Indian Ocean last
month

The Geneva-based WTO said its Director General, Supachai
Panitchpakdi, wrote to the 148 trading nations to ask them to
think "deeply and expeditiously" about ways in which they could
adapt their trade policy.

"Obvious possible areas which occur to me and no doubt others
will be market access and some restraint in use of trade
remedies," Supachai said in the letter.

The global trade chief comes from Thailand, one of the
countries affected when tidal waves crashed into coastal areas
around the Indian Ocean on Dec. 26, causing huge devastation and
killing at least 163,000 people.

Supachai also said trading nations could help in the longer
term by pressing ahead with global trade talks, which are
primarily meant to help developing nations by lifting barriers in
new trade areas such as agriculture.

"Although we are not involved in humanitarian assistance or
disaster relief, clearly we can make a major contribution to the
economies of the affected countries (and others) by pressing on
with and concluding the Doha Development Agenda as soon as
possible," he wrote.

Sri Lanka, one of the hardest hit countries, is trying to
secure concessions from the United States and the European Union
to help its clothing exports following the tsunami.

Sri Lanka's ambassador in Geneva, Gomi Senadhire, told AFP
that his government would be writing to the EU's Commission to
ask it to lift customs duties on clothing from the country for
about three months.

"We are also in the process of appealing to the U.S.," he
added.

"We need resources to rebuild our economy. What is better than
trade?" Senadhire said.

Although Sri Lanka's textiles industry had not been directly
affected by the catastrophe, the tourism industry had been widely
devastated and the country's economy needed a boost, he
explained.

On top of a death toll of more than 30,000 in Sri Lanka, the
tsunami caused an estimated US$3 billion of damage, according to
authorities.
In 2003, Sri Lankan companies paid nearly $220 million in customs
duties in the United States.