VZCZCXRO6637
RR RUEHGR
DE RUEHGE #0327/01 0971953
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 071953Z APR 06
FM AMEMBASSY GEORGETOWN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3353
INFO RUCNCOM/EC CARICOM COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GEORGETOWN 000327 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PASS TO USTR 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12598: N/A 
TAGS: ETRD EAGR PREL GY
SUBJECT: BACKGROUND INFORMATION FOR CARICOM-USTR MEETING: 
GUYANA 
 
REF: (A) GEORGETOWN 40, (B) 05 GEORGETOWN 1309 
 
¶1. Minister of Foreign Trade and International Commerce, 
Clement Rohee, will represent Guyana at the USTR-CARICOM 
meeting April 12. Below is a brief overview of Guyana's 
economy and Rohee's bio. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
An Agricultural Economy With Heavy U.S. Market Reliance 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
¶2. A Heavily Indebted Poor Country, Guyana's $717 million 
official economy is heavily dependent on commodity exports 
and vulnerable to price fluctuations and macroeconomic 
shocks. Following devastating floods in January 2005 that 
contributed to a 30% decline in sugar production in the 
first half of 2005, GDP contracted 3% for the year. A series 
of challenges to Guyana's terms of trade, including the 
European Union's 36% reduction in sugar price supports over 
the next four years and the closure of the country's largest 
gold mine, are pressing Guyana to look toward non- 
traditional exports, greater development of the services 
sector (including tourism and IT-enabled "back office" 
support) and value-added production as agents of growth. 
 
¶3. Guyana's staple exports are primary products, including 
sugar, rice and shrimp, as well as products of extractive 
industries, including gold, timber, and diamonds. 
Agriculture accounts for around a third of GDP. The U.S. is 
Guyana's leading source of imports and number two export 
market. In 2004, bilateral trade amounted to $273 million, 
with heavy machinery, eggs, auto parts, and milk being the 
leading U.S. products exported to Guyana. A few firms export 
textiles to the U.S. under Caribbean Basin Initiative 
preferences. 
 
----------------------------------- 
REGIONAL/MULTILATERAL TRADE POSTURE 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶4. Guyana was one of the first six signatories when the 
Caribbean Single Market Economy took effect on January 1, 
and the National Assembly passed two bills--one recognizing 
the revised Treaty of Chaguaramas that established the CSME 
and another authorizing the free movement of skilled labor, 
services and capital as provided by the Revised Treaty--in 
early March. Privately, many business leaders contend that 
Guyana is not ready to compete in the single market, and 
many observers predict the CSME will exacerbate the ongoing 
exodus of skilled labor. 
 
¶5. Following a decade of gradual liberalization of 
protectionist measures, Guyana's average tariff rate is 
around 12%. Within this, an average tariff of 22% on 
agricultural products suggests that Guyana's tariff systems 
blends revenue collection with protection of its primary 
products. Taxes on international trade accounted for 9% of 
tax revenue in 2005. Within CARICOM, Guyana has strongly 
advocated enforcement of the Common External Tariff with 
regard to extra-regional rice imports. Following the 
February Council on Economic Trade and Development (COTED) 
meeting in Georgetown, the GOG threatened to make a case 
before the Caribbean Court of Justice against several 
CARICOM members for allegedly failing to apply the CET to 
rice imports from the U.S. In multilateral fora, including 
the WTO, Guyana has strongly advocated special and 
differential treatment in the context of trade 
liberalization. 
 
---------------------------- 
Background on Minister Rohee 
---------------------------- 
 
¶6. Rohee was named Foreign Minister when the PPP came to 
power in 1992.  He has held the Minister of Foreign Trade 
and International Cooperation (MOFTIC) portfolio since May 
2002 when the Ministry was created as a mechanism to remove 
him from the MFA.  In this context he serves as CARICOM's 
spokesman at the WTO (having served as a Friend of the Chair 
at the Cancun Ministerial) and a lead spokesman on CARICOM 
sugar issues. 
 
¶7. Rohee is often outspoken in his criticism of developed 
countries' commitment to trade and development, declaring, 
for instance, at the Hong Kong ministerial in December that 
the Doha Development Agenda was "selfish and unrealistic" 
(Ref B). He has also recently cited a "selfish populism" in 
the U.S. and Europe that, he argues, demonstrates that 
advocates of trade liberalization are wont to adopt 
protectionist measures. Nevertheless, in his public 
 
GEORGETOWN 00000327  002 OF 002 
 
 
statements he has stopped short of condemning trade 
liberalization outright, as media reports quoted him as 
saying in Hong Kong that "trade-based solution rather than 
handouts must be the way forward". 
 
¶8. Rohee, who is of mixed African and Indo-Guyanese descent, 
began his political career in 1968 as a member of the 
People's Progressive Party's (PPP) youth organization.  He 
holds a certificate in education from the National Evening 
College of Guyana and studied at the Institute of Social 
Sciences in Moscow.  During 1979-83 he was the party 
representative on the editorial board of the Marxist 
political journal Problems of Peace and Progress in Prague, 
where he also served as the party's liaison with East 
European Communist parties.  Rohee also served as the 
PPP's international relations secretary.  Rohee speaks 
Spanish and Czech fluently in addition to his native 
English.  He is married and has two daughters from a 
previous marriage. 
 
¶9. Also in the CARICOM delegation will be David Hales, 
Program Manager for External Economic and Trade Relations. 
A very competent career Guyana FSO, Hales was Permanent 
Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs when Rohee 
 
SIPDIS 
became Minister in 1992.  Rohee forced Hales out. 
 
BULLEN