| Trade
Policy Advice
1. Background
2. Development
objectives
3. Approach
4. Expected
outputs
5. Comparative
advantages
1.
Background
In
line with its purpose of helping low-income countries
to integrate into the world economy in a way that supports
their development efforts, the Centre’s trade
policy advice aims at enhancing and improving effective
participation in the multilateral trading system and/or
facilitating accession to the WTO.
The Centre offers trade
policy advice to two sets of developing/transition countries:
those who have already acceded, but are not yet in a position
to fully participate in and take advantage from the WTO and
those who are in the process of acceding to the WTO.
Currently,
some thirty countries are involved in WTO accession
procedures. Applicants include countries, such as Russia,
Ukraine and Algeria, several former USSR Republics,
other transition economies, as well as a number of developing
countries and LDCs. So far, the Centre has been working
in the following acceding countries: Cambodia, Laos,
Lebanon, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro and Vietnam.
Some preparatory work has also been supported in Iran
(whose accession remains blocked). The work undertaken
in these countries includes different kinds of support,
ranging from strategic policy advice for high-level
decision-makers to enhancing WTO awareness within the
private sector and its participation in a transparent
trade policy dialogue with the Government.
There
are many more countries that have acceded but are still
struggling to implement their WTO obligations or to
find ways to participate effectively in multilateral
trade negotiations. For example, several African countries
and LDCs’ political agenda is determined by more
immediate and urgent development priorities; these countries
do not have the required capacities, nor are they in
a position, to determine and voice their trade and development
interests in the framework of the WTO.
One
example of the Centre’s work with such WTO members
is the project that led to the elaboration of a West
and Central African cotton submission, which was transmitted
in April 2003 by the four LDCs (Benin, Burkina Faso,
Mali and Chad) to the WTO agricultural negotiations
committee. Support to defend the negotiation proposals
made in the submission is ongoing.
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2. Development
objectives
The Centre focuses on three
critical elements of successful trade policy-making:
 supporting
the Government’s role,
building
institutional capacity and
involving
private sector stakeholders.
In trade policy advice,
a broad range of domestic policy issues, going way beyond
pure trade issues, need to be addressed. The Centre’s
advice aims at reaching a set of interrelated sub-goals, such
as:
Strengthening
the understanding of linkages between trade and development,
of the functioning of the world trading system, of national,
regional and global trade policy issues;
Facilitating
the articulation of a coherent trade development strategy,
i.e. supporting the identification of a country’s
trade interests and sustaining the development of
skills required for active participation in regional
or multilateral trade negotiations;
Discussing
economic policy adjustments and reforms required in order
to ensure coherence between domestic economic legislation/regulations
and international rules/disciplines;
Encouraging
interactivity - through consultative mechanisms and local
networks for trade information - amongst stakeholders in
trade policy, i.e. Government, private sector, workers and
consumers;
Fostering
the development and efficient use of institutional structures
and expertise for trade policy analysis and formulation
(national think tanks, academia, research networks, and
so on).
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3. Approach
The
Centre’s team delivers its trade policy advice
at the highest level possible (Ministers in charge of
external economic relations, CEOs of private sector
companies). It works on the basis of regular missions,
permanent exchanges of information and frequent contact.
The policy advice offered evolves in the form of a continuing
dialogue with the partner(s). Trade policy advice projects
can be extended, so as to include specific technical
assistance components - research, legal expertise, training,
production of learning material, and so forth - for
which outside experts are identified and contracted
by the Centre. Whenever a technical mandate is given
to outside experts, the Centre keeps the overall management
and monitoring responsibility over the entire programme
of trade policy related technical assistance.
The
Centre emphasises the need for close relationships with
its partners and for customised services that take into
consideration varied and evolving country priorities,
as well as different cultural sensitivities and perceptions.
The Centre sets world trade in the broader perspective
of sustainable development and roots its services on
a comprehensive and inclusive approach. The whole spectrum
of trade policy stakeholders - trade-relevant government
ministries, the business sector, trade promotion and
regulatory bodies, academia, research networks and think
tanks, consumer and other civil society organisations
- are taken into account in the countries’ efforts
towards elaborating and/or strengthening a national
trade development strategy.
The
Centre devotes considerable time to preparing, sustaining
and updating its trade policy advice services: it keeps
abreast of trade policy developments, WTO negotiations
and country-specific information, it networks with partner
institutions and experts, and it maintains a grid relating
to expertise on specific themes and technical issues.
The delivery of policy advice partly depends on political
factors, which are not under the Centre’s control.
In order to be in a position to respond to emerging
political opportunities, the Centre maintains a permanent
intervention capacity, based on the maintenance of information
and contact networks.
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4. Expected
outputs
Trade policy related assistance
aims at building and/or strengthening national or regional
capacities and institutions:
to
identify and analyse trade positions and interests, as well
as the potential for trade development
to
identify and analyse trade issues at the regional
and international levels
to
define and formulate a coherent national trade policy as
part of a broader development strategy
to
balance competing development priorities and to defend
legitimate trade priority issues
to
understand the rights and obligations contained in
the WTO Agreements and to use the existing flexibilities,
in order to support sustainable development
to
adapt domestic legislation and regulations according
to a country’s development interests and in
conformity with the obligations contained in external
– bilateral, regional and international - trade
agreements
to
design and implement domestic reforms required for
WTO accession (for example: introduction of fiscal
adjustments, customs modernisation, incentive policies
for a competitive business environment, public sector
reforms, social reforms and so on)
to
defend rights and obligations in regional and international
trade agreements, in order to use multilateral mechanisms
to protect rights
to
effectively participate in ongoing and future regional and
multilateral trade negotiating rounds
to
cooperate and coordinate with Ministries and other
national institutions dealing with trade related subjects
or issues
to
collect and disseminate to national stakeholders (corporate
sector and consumer organisations) information on trade
policy as well as on regional and international trade agreements,
e.g. through the establishment of appropriate institutions
such as special “enquiry points”
to
establish national consultative mechanisms and to
build the Government’s network capabilities
with the private sector as well as with labour and
consumer organisations
to
tap resources from internal and external academia and research
networks
to
coordinate external trade-related assistance received from
different funding sources and implementing agencies
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5.
Comparative advantages
IDEAS
Centre’s trade policy advice services build upon
experiences accumulated since 1995 by Mr. Arthur Dunkel,
former GATT Director-General and director of Stimena,
a Swiss trade initiative for the Middle East and North
Africa. Since September 2002, Mr. Nicolas Imboden, a
former trade negotiator and development Ambassador within
the Swiss Ministry of Economy, joined Arthur Dunkel
in establishing IDEAS Centre, a non-profit association,
specialised in trade policy and related cooperation
projects in developing and transition countries. The
combined policy know-how and international experiences
of IDEAS Centre’s staff members constitute strong
assets supporting high-level advisory services to Governments,
policy-makers and private sector representatives. The
Centre’s team members have complementary knowledge
and skills that allow a comprehensive and integrated
approach towards sound trade and economic governance.
The Centre’s small size allows it to pursue demand-driven
and flexible approaches, while its outside network linkages
permit it to tackle the best available expertise.
Key words of IDEAS Centre’s
mission statement are: relevance, innovation, flexibility
and high service quality.
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For more information, please contact:
IDEAS Centre
Rue de l’Arquebuse 10
CH - 1204 Geneva, SWITZERLAND
Tel. +41-22-807 17 40
Fax +41-22-807 17 41
Email: info@ideascentre.ch
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