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Executive Director appointed to Productivity Commission
The University of Adelaide’s Executive Director of the Institute for
International Trade, Andrew Stoler, was appointed to the position of Associate
Commissioner of the Productivity Commission by Senator the Hon. Nick Sherry
on 16 November 2009. The appointment is for a period of 13 months, during which
time Mr. Stoler and Commissioner Patricia Scott will head a study reviewing
Australia’s bilateral and regional trade agreements. Mr. Stoler will continue
to direct the Institute for International Trade and will pursue his duties with
the Productivity Commission on a part-time basis.
Pacific Fellowship Trade Training - Module Five
The Institute for International Trade recently completed module five of the
Australian Leadership Award Trade Fellowships Pacific Islanders Trade Training
Program held from 17 – 21 August, 2009. The major objectives of module
five were as follows:
- Strengthen participant knowledge of trade policy with respect to the treatment
of agriculture products and market access issues including the significance
of SPS and ROO – in multilateral and regional trade settings.
- Analyze the relationship between agricultural policy and implementation
issues with respect to sustainable development.
- Practice tariff scheduling and further develop our negotiation skills through
a simulated negotiation activity.
- Highlight potential issues for the treatment of agriculture in PACER Plus
and initial discussion of potential impact of PACER Plus on import tariff
revenue for PICs
The module began with Mike Hathaway, Jim Redden and Margaret Malua covering
the main agricultural concepts in trade agreements including the treatment of
market access, quarantine and SPS issues and rules of origin. Sophia Murphy
from the Institute for Agricultural Trade Policy in the USA, dealt with a number
of development related agricultural issues and introduced debates around agricultural
protectionism in developed countries, the role of special products and sensitive
products and the use of special and differential treatment. This was followed
by simulated trade negotiation activities. The overall participant feedback
on this module was very positive with requests for more negotiation simulations,
more input on the role of competition and investment policy for small island
countries and more work on how to attract greater investment into rural infrastructure
and into small primary producers. The next module will focus on NAMA products
and fisheries.
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