This victory has been realised with the General Council endorsing a package of proposals that seeks to accommodate the needs of small states in the implementation of obligations arising out of membership in the WTO.

The acceptance by the General Council, the highest decision-making body at the WTO, of this package of proposals, now provides legal certainty to donors: where practicable, multilateral agencies could target regional bodies for the disbursement of technical and financial assistance.

While the option of direct multilateral support to regional bodies has always existed, explicit recognition by the WTO
of this option will greatly assist regional bodies in attracting multilateral technical assistance.

In this regard, the proposals endorsed seek recognition with respect to the following WTO agreements:

* Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) – this relates to food safety as well as animal and plant health;

* Technical Barriers
to Trade (TBT) – this agreement seeks to ensure that technical procedures, testing and certification procedures, do not create unnecessary obstacles to trade in industrial
goods, and

* Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) – which deals with intellectual property law in international trade.

Elliott Paige, chargé d'affaires of the OECS Technical Mission in Geneva, said the successful adoption of the proposals marked the first time that the WTO had agreed to a specific package of measures put forward by the Small Vulnerable Economies group.

The OECS Technical Mission to the World Trade Organisation serves the independent members of the OECS.