Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Hon.Oneidge Walrond, held a Bilateral Meeting with WTO Director-General, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on Wednesday

During the meeting, Minister Walrond reaffirmed Guyana’s commitment to the principles of the multilateral trading system, emphasizing that Guyana takes its role as the CARICOM Ministerial Spokesperson on WTO matters very seriously. She expressed the government’s continued support for ongoing negotiations and stressed the importance of maintaining an equitable and transparent trading system.

Minister Walrond further underscored the need for special and differential treatment for countries like Guyana and others in CARICOM, due to their vulnerability to the climate crisis.

She highlighted the unique challenges faced by Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and urged the WTO to engage with them accordingly. She also thanked the WTO for its support to Guyana, particularly in areas such as technical capacity building.

The Minister assured the Director-General that Guyana is actively working on fulfilling its transparency obligations at the WTO. She provided an update on the progress of the ratification of Phase 1 of the Fisheries Subsidies Agreement Phase 1, which addresses the issue of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Minister Walrond also  extended an invitation to the Director General to visit Guyana. Permanent Representative of Guyana to the United Nations Office at Geneva, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy also attended the meeting.