Capacity Building in Developing Countries

• Kaifeng Training Program
  The Institute for International Trade delivered an innovative training program focussing on the industrialisation of agriculture and the relationship to international trade to twenty government officials from Kaifeng City, China from 26th October - 1 November, 2008.

  This training program was delivered in a variety of forms including expert presentations from experts at the University, the Waite Institute and the Institute for International Trade. It also included site visits and tours. The presentations covered a broad range of topics, varying from international trade in agriculture, to water management and agricultural supply chains. The Institute tailored the course to trainees' interest by adding several presentations on topics requested during the week such as on seed breeding, water conservation, the education system in Australia, superannuation and housing practices in Australia.

  As reflected in the evaluation by the Kaifeng officials, the 2008 Kaifeng Training Program was rated very highly. Positive feedback was received on course design, the depth and breadth of the presentations, the efficiency of IIT in response to trainees' interest in topics and organisational logistics. Future opportunities were identified in research and development, for example, research and commercialization in seeds and water management in China. The Institute has established very good relations with the Kaifeng Municipal Government through this inaugural training program and is expecting repeated programs in the future. The Municipal Government in Kaifeng is currently processing approval for a 2009 training program to again be based in Adelaide.
  
  

• Advanced Workshop on Negotiating FTAs - Yogyakarta, Indonesia
  On 27-28 October 2008, the Executive Director delivered a program of advanced level training for APEC officials on FTA negotiations concerned with services, investment, government procurement, competition policy and intellectual property rights. The Institute’s input into the program was contracted by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
  
  

• Pacific Trade Training Module
  From 22-27 September 2008, the Institute implemented the first of 10 one-week trade training modules for Pacific Islanders. The 10 module program which will run throughout 2009 targets upcoming negotiators from all 14 Pacific Forum Island countries. The course aims to strengthen trade policy knowledge, to develop participants capacity to negotiate trade agreements in general and will deal extensively with the benefits and challenges of a PACER Plus trade agreement for the region. The first module saw senior and middle-ranking officials from most of the Forum Island Countries engage in relevant debates with senior trade policy practitioners, experienced trade negotiators and with Australian trade negotiators who will be part of future PACER Plus negotiations. The first round of training produced a very practical, down to earth discussion of the realities facing Pacific Island nations, their trade related development priorities and initial discussion of some key negotiating priorities.

• APEC Training in WTO Agriculture Negotiations
  The Institute’s Executive Director delivered a training module on the WTO agriculture trade negotiations to senior officials from selected APEC countries as part of a program organized by the Australian APEC Centre. The material presented by the Institute reviewed the history of the negotiations and then analysed in detail how a result based on current draft modalities would affect the interests of developed and developing countries in market access, export competition and domestic supports for farmers. The September 10, 2008 program was held in Melbourne.
  
  
• FTA and Services Training Program in Chinese Taipei
  In late August, 2008, the Institute delivered a one-week training program for officials in Chinese Taipei composed of two days’ training on negotiating FTA provisions relating to trade in goods and a three-day simulation of a GATS negotiation of trade in services commitments. Thirty-two officials in four country teams participated in the simulation exercise. The training was delivered by Executive Director Andrew Stoler and IIT Associate Expert Graeme Thomson.
  
  
• Pacific Islands Symposium on Trade in Services
  Working with representatives of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Institute’s Executive Director participated in a symposium on trade in services organized for Pacific Island officials in Nadi, Fiji in late June 2008. The Executive Director delivered a presentation on how movement of natural persons provisions had been negotiated in a number of different free trade agreements and opened a discussion on how these questions might be addressed in an eventual PACER – Plus negotiation.
  
  
• Bhutan WTO Accession: National Awareness Workshops
  In late June 2007, the Institute's Executive Director and WTO Visiting Fellow, Aik Hoe Lim, delivered four days of National Awareness Workshops to business representatives and government officials in the capital, Thimpu and in Phuentsholing, Bhutan's principal commercial centre.  The Workshops were developed and delivered under contract to UNESCAP.
  
  
• Jakarta Training Program in High-Quality FTAs for APEC Officials
  Executive Director Stoler developed and delivered three main components of this training program addressed to the negotiation of modern free trade agreements (FTAs). In his contribution to the program, he addressed the handling of trade remedies (antidumping, subsidies/countervail, emergency safeguards), trade in services and scheduling modalities used in both the GATS and NAFTA approaches to liberalising services trade and movement of natural persons provisions in FTAs. The training program was sponsored jointly by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Government of Indonesia and was held in Jakarta, Indonesia from 5-7 December 2006.
  
  
• China Mayors Australian Study Tour
  Twenty-seven mayors from selected Chinese municipalities visited Australia over a three-week period in October-November 20006. The study tour, designed and delivered by the Institute in collaboration with the China City Mayors Centre, started in Adelaide before moving on through several other Australian capital cities. The focus of the study tour was on how Australian municipalities tackle problems and issues shared by cities in China. The 2006 study tour is expected to be the inaugural tour of a multi-year program of such visits.
  
  
• ASEAN Workshop on Mutual Recognition Agreements
  The Institute's Executive Director played a central role in the development and delivery of a two-day program for ASEAN officials addressed to mutual recognition agreements (MRAs) for professional service suppliers. IIT's contribution to the workshop focussed on the treatment of services MRAs in the WTO selected bilateral and regional agreements and examined sectoral arrangements in place or under negotiation for engineers, architects, accountants, surveyors, nurses and other medical professionals as well as MRAs in the financial and insurance service sectors. Nearly 100 senior ASEAN officials participated in the USAID-funded program which was held in September 2006 on the Indonesian island of Bali.
  
  
• East Timor Trade Training Courses
  Funded by USAID, the International Law and Development Organisation commissioned the Institute for International Business, Economics and Law to run the first two trade training programs of a broader trade capacity building project for the East Timorese. The capacity building program is targeting a locally chosen cadre of East Timor officials across a range of departments including the Ministry of Development, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Department of Investment and Export Promotion, Ministry of Agriculture and various other departments including Planning and External Assistance and Tourism with overall selection and coordination undertaken by the Office of the Prime Minister.
  
  The first one-week course held from 20 February to 24 February was an introduction to the fundamentals of international trade covering the basics of trade policy measures and the relationship between trade policy, economic development and poverty reduction. A second training course completed in late April, 2006 reinforced the fundamentals of trade policy measures, introduced the concepts of SPS measures and Rules of Origin and then focussed in on the relevance of the Cotonou Agreement for East Timor.
  
  
• Advanced Workshop on FTA Negotiations for APEC Member Economies
  IIBE&L contributed importantly to the advanced workshop on FTA negotiations for APEC Member Economies held in Kuala Lumpur on 23-25 January 2006. Specific contributions included (1) the content of an FTA investment chapter (2) movement of natural persons (GATS mode 4), (3) trade facilitation, and (4) how trade remedies are addressed in FTA negotiations. The workshop was jointly sponsored by Malaysia’s MITI and Australia’s DFAT.
  
  
• Advanced Workshops for Chinese Officials on Free Trade Agreement Negotiations
  In mid-January, IIBE&L conducted the first two in a series of advanced workshops for Chinese Government officials on aspects of negotiating free trade agreements with a particular focus on differences between the treatment of certain trade issues in the WTO as compared to FTAS. The series of workshops is being held in Beijing and will continue throughout 2006.
  
  
• Contingency Trade Protection Training Module
  On 21-22 November 2005, IIBE&L Senior Program Manager Redden delivered a two-day module on contingency trade protection (antidumping, subsidies/countervail and safeguards) as part of the International Development Law Organization’s annual Public International Trade Law Course.
  
  
• Textiles and Clothing Feature in IIBE&L's Trade Training in Cambodia
  A special session on the future of Cambodia’s textile and clothing industry featured as part of a more comprehensive one-week training program on Market Access for Agricultural and Industrial Goods run for 24 Cambodian public and private sector officials in September 2005. Faced with growing clothing and textile export competition from its larger neighbours China and India, Cambodia nevertheless maintains market access advantages afforded by its Least Developed Country (LDC) status. Cambodia has duty free access on its exports to the EU, Canada, Australia, NZ and is in the process of negotiating a preferential deal together with other LDCs from the USA. So while some factories have had to shut down, companies such as Walmart and Nike continue to maintain operations there and indeed some new larger factories have opened over the last year so there is hope that they will absorb job losses particularly for vulnerable women workers. The Trade Training Program held from 27 September to 30 September 2005 was carried out in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, under the auspices of the Singapore–Australia Trilateral Cooperation Program. The training was delivered by Mr Jim Redden of IIBE&L and Margaret Liang of the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs with training certificates presented at the closing ceremony by the Acting Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Mr Chang Tong Yves.
  
  
• Inaugural three-month Shanghai Training Program Completed
  In August 2005, fifteen senior officials of the Shanghai Municipal Government successfully completed the first special three-month trade training program organised by the Institute in cooperation with the Shanghai WTO Affairs Consultation Centre.
  
  In Adelaide the officials undertook specialised training on WTO agreements, the nature of Regional and Bilateral Free Trade Agreements and met with a range of industry experts from Business SA, Export Solutions and representatives from the China Cluster in South Australia.
  
  In Sydney special meetings were held with a range of private companies including the Macquarie Bank, Price Waterhouse Coopers and with Stock Exchange officials enabling the participants to comprehend how the private sector in Australia engages the international trading system.
  
  In Canberra our Shanghai guests met with a number of research and lobby organisations including ABARE, the Centre for International Economics and the National Farmers Federation while very comprehensive sessions were held with DFAT and AusAID. The training program finished with outstanding presentations from Saul Eslake of the ANZ and from Michael Sullivan, China specialist at Flinders University.
  
  On 5 August 2005, all the participants were awarded a special trade training certificate from the Institute's Executive Director, Andrew Stoler. The evaluations from the Shanghai officials were consistently positive not only about the training course but about South Australia generally.
  
  The Institute wishes to thank all the presenters and guest speakers who gave so generously of their time in making this inaugural course a success.
  
  View photos taken during with Official Welcoming Ceremony, Sydney and Canberra Meetings.
  
  
• Bangkok Services Negotiating Seminar for ASEAN Officials
  On 2-3 May 2005, IIBE&L's Executive Director delivered several training modules in a training seminar for ASEAN officials on negotiating services trade issues in the context of a free trade area agreement. The Bangkok program was sponsored by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and New Zealand's Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade and was designed to prepare ASEAN participants for their upcoming FTA negotiations with the trans-Tasman Closer Economic Relationship partners.
  
  
• IIBE&L Market Access Training Program in the Lao People's Democratic Republic
  From 28 February to 4 March 2005 IIBE&L conducted a five-day Training Program on Market Access for Agricultural and Industrial Products and the on-going WTO Negotiations. The program was carried out in Vientiane, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, under the auspices of the Singapore–Australia Trilateral Cooperation Program. The workshop was organised and facilitated by IIBE&L's Visiting WTO Fellow, Peter Pedersen.

  Twenty-six government officials from ten different ministries and departments successfully completed the program which aimed at raising the awareness of the participants of the importance of market access for agricultural and industrial products at home and in overseas markets and the relationship of an open market to economic development. Specific objectives of the program included improving the understanding of the basics of the WTO regime for market access in these areas, providing an introduction of the opportunities and challenges derived from agricultural and industrial products trade liberalization in terms of both exports and imports and deepening the knowledge of specific issues impacting sectoral negotiations and the differences between the regimes for various sectors. Through the use of numerous case studies and exercises the program also demonstrated the agricultural and industrial scheduling techniques and provided in-depth explanations of the dynamics of reduction formulae that may be used in a negotiation. The seminar also outlined the state-of-play in the Doha Round market access negotiations in both the industrial area and for agricultural products. In addition, a number of other issues relating to WTO accession, trade remedy rules, the Doha Round of multilateral negotiations and the functioning of the WTO were covered in response to specific requests from participants.

  The Training Program was opened by the Ambassadors of Singapore and Australia to the Lao PDR and received comprehensive press coverage (pdf 105kB).
  

• Australia-Malaysia APEC Workshop on Trade Facilitation Negotiations (1-2 March 2005)
  More than 70 officials and business representatives participated in a two-day APEC workshop on the WTO trade facilitation negotiations held in Kuala Lumpur on 1-2 March 2005. The workshop was organised and facilitated by IIBE&L's Executive Director, Andrew Stoler. The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Malaysian Ministry of International Trade and Industry co-sponsored the event. Speakers from around the APEC region and from Geneva presented on various aspects of trade facilitation. Overall there was a sense among workshop participants that rules were necessary in this area of the WTO negotiations. More detailed information on the workshop was circulated by Malaysia and Australia in the WTO in document TN/TF/W/27 (pdf 215kB).
  

• APEC Workshops on Negotiating Free-Trade Agreements
  IIBE&L Executive Director Stoler delivered a presentation on preparations for negotiating FTAs for the APEC Workshops conducted in Beijing on 8 December 2004 and in Bandar Seri Begawan from 13-15 December 2004. Media Release
  

• Four-Week IIBE&L Trade in Services Training Program for Vietnam
  Eleven government officials from several Vietnamese agencies successfully completed an intensive Institute training program on trade in services on 26 November 2004. The program included in-depth review of international rules for trade in services in both the WTO and in bilateral trade agreements, a simulated negotiation exercise, extensive use of case studies and field visits to key Australian services providers. Guest lecturers included experts from the Australian Productivity Commission and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Three of the four weeks were spent in IIBE&L training facilities in Adelaide and one week was spent in Sydney at the Asia-Pacific Training Centre of the International Development Law Organization. The training program was funded by intergovernmental agency funds.
  

• Public International Trade Law Course
  In late September and early October, 2004, the Institute’s Executive Director delivered a two-day module on contingency trade protection in this annual course organized by the International Development Law Organization (IDLO). Institute Associate Expert Peter Gallagher delivered a two-day module on market access and tariff negotiations.
  

• ITS Global Training for Vietnamese Agriculture Officials
  Executive Director Stoler participated in the ITS Global program on August 3, 2004 where he addressed participants on his experiences in WTO accession negotiations, both as a former DDG of the WTO and as a former Chairman of an accession working party.
  
  
• Training in Services Negotiations for African Officials
  In late May, 2004, the Institute delivered an intensive program in trade negotiations on services to 22 African trade officials from East and Southern Africa. The program, developed in IIBE&L, featured a realistic two-day negotiating simulation and country case studies on how WTO Members participate in the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). The program – held in Port Louis, Mauritius - was sponsored by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and funded by AusAID.
  
  
• Working with the Geneva-based Agency for International Trade Information and Cooperation, the Institute provided training to trade officials from small Pacific island states at a three day session in Brisbane (9-11 December 2003). Institute-delivered training covered up-to-date information on the WTO negotiations on agricultural trade reform, non-agricultural market access and possibilities for reform within the WTO system. Countries represented at the training sessions included: Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga and the Cook Islands.
  
  
• Institute Partnership with DFID
  The Institute is proud to announce that in late September it was selected by the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) for a Trade and Development Framework Arrangement. Under the multi-year Framework Arrangement, the Institute can be expected to deliver trade-related capacity building projects in response to DFID-determined requirements.
  
  
• The Institute has participated in a range of trade rules capacity-building activities in developing countries, including a two-day program on Trade in Services delivered in Bangkok (with WTO and UNESCAP) in February, 2003 and a one-day explanation of WTO rules for contingency trade protection delivered at the Shanghai WTO Affairs Consultation Centre in November, 2002.
  
  
• In May 2003, IIBE&L delivered the contingency trade protection segment of the International Development Law Organization's WTO training course in Sydney.
  
  
• In October 2003, IIBE&L delivered specialized training modules on market access negotiations and contingent trade protection as part of the IDLO's Public International Trade Law Course.
  
  
• Institute staff and associate experts are available to provide capacity building training on a wide range of trade topics.
  

Contact us for more information.