CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Cuba Signs Agreement on Trade Preferences.

CUBA, December 16th, 2010.- Cuba, as signatory of the Sao Paulo Round, from the Global System of Trade Preferences (GSTP), signed an agreement on trade preferences among Africa, Asia and Latin America.

According to Prensa Latina news agency, the signing, which took place in Foz de Iguazu, ended the Ministerial Conference of the GSTP, held in this city of the Brazilian State of Parana.

The signatories, representing 1.9 billion of people –– almost the third part of the total population of the planet –– were: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay (members of the Common Market of the South), as well as Egypt, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco and South Korea.

The GSTP, created on April 19, 1989, is made up of 43 nations, a figure which could be increased if accepted the request of Burkina Faso, Burundi, Haiti, Madagascar, Mauritania, Rwanda, Suriname and Uganda.

With this agreement the signatory parts will have a preference margin of 20 % over the tariffs applied to 70 % of the products, whereas the remaining 30 % will allow the nations to protect their more vulnerable sectors.

Some of the representatives present at the meeting highlighted the importance of this agreement for third world countries, given the current world economic crisis.

The Brazilian ambassador to the World Trade Organization, Roberto Azevedo, noted that this is a historical moment for the South-South Cooperation, and added that the GSTP is the only platform of possible trade agreements among developing countries which covers three continents.

The head of the Cuban delegation in Brazil, Carlos Zamora, said that this ministerial conference has a special significance taking into account the context of the current financial crisis.

Zamora expressed his confidence that the commitments reached will serve to promote trade and development of the member countries of the G-77 and China.

The Cuban representative said that Cuba will continue working to reactivate and improve the GSTP so that its goals are fulfilled. (Cubaminrex - ACN)

 

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