Mr Afif launching the sessions yesterday

Principal secretary for finance Ahmed Afif said this yesterday as he launched a series of sessions aimed at helping key people understand how the trade body works.

Principal secretaries, chief executives and University of Seychelles lecturers attended a briefing session at the university’s School of Education in the morning, and members of the National Assembly another in the afternoon. Ministers are due to attend one tomorrow at Liberty House.

Mr Afif said the Ministry of Finance “is under no illusion there will not be some form of negative effect as a result of WTO accession”, but he listed a number of advantages of joining.

“Seychelles will have made its case to a large number of countries who have an agreed set of procedures and rules, and we will therefore be able to present ourselves as a WTO-compatible country,” he said.

“Investors would have a more clearly defined environment in which they would operate and be better able to assess the merits or demerits of investing or operating in Seychelles.

“However, certain sectors or groups of people in the country might find themselves in some difficulties if planning the migration from not being a member to being one is not done carefully.”

Mr Afif said joining the WTO might bring more competition in the face of new rules, and local production sectors – particularly those involved in import substitution or the services sector – will need time and information to manoeuvre so they are able to face the new environment.

He noted that the launch of the sessions coincided with the opening of a WTO reference centre.

Mr Afif said “hard decisions will have to be made and the current regulatory framework governing sectors will have to be revised to ensure compliance with WTO rules”.

He said the WTO is the only multilateral organisation that deals directly with international trade and is the guardian of the other multilateral trade-related agreements.

“It has been generally agreed that these agreements have been able to mitigate against the impact of the global financial crisis,” he said.

He said, for example, that if we had been part of the WTO we could have had an avenue to redress more quickly the swordfish export ban we suffered in 2004.

“The commitment of the Ministry of Finance is that we will guide the process through the national working group to negotiate the best possible deal for Seychelles,” said Mr Afif.

“In doing so, the negotiating strategy will be phased liberalisation of various sectors of the economy, at the same time seeking to protect sectors that are much more vulnerable to foreign competition.

“This is all in the spirit of mitigating the negative impacts of Seychelles’ accession.”

He called on everyone to help get the best possible result, adding that membership of the WTO will have an effect on everyone.

Among those who gave presentations were Edwini Kessie and Cherif Mondher of the WTO.