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WTO
NEWS: 1999 PRESS RELEASES Press/138 The WTO's twelfth Trade Policy Course for twenty-six officials from developing countries started on 20 September last. The list of participants is attached. The course, being held in English, began on Monday, 20 September and will end 10 December 1999. The aim of the training courses is to provide the participants with greater understanding of trade policy matters, the functioning of the multilateral trading system and the work of the WTO. |
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 The courses will also address the provisions of the agreements resulting from the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations and the rights and obligations of WTO Members. Offered in English twice every year and French and Spanish every second year, the courses are open to officials from developing, least-developed and transition countries, including countries which are not WTO Members. The courses have a practical orientation and are designed to help participating officials, who already have responsibilities for the formulation and conduct of foreign trade policy in their respective governments, to perform their functions more effectively, and to promote a more active and effective participation of their respective countries in the multilateral trading system. Apart from a series of lectures on WTO law, the programme includes participation in seminars and group discussions, a workshop on negotiating techniques and simulation exercises for conducting trade negotiations and for settling disputes. The participants also attend official meetings. During the course, the participants undertake a one-week study tour abroad as well as a shorter study tour in Switzerland, which include visits to institutions and enterprises connected with foreign trade. Norway will host the study tour abroad for the participants of the twelfth Course. In addition to WTO Secretariat officials, many guest lecturers, including senior officials of government delegations and international organizations, as well as academics, are invited to address the participants. The year 2000 will mark the 45th anniversary of the GATT/WTO training courses. Since 1955, the GATT/WTO will have organized 94 regular courses for more than 1,800 officials from over 160 countries and more than ten regional organizations. These figures do not include the 212 senior trade officials from Eastern and Central European and Central Asian countries who participated in the nine special courses organized by GATT since 1991, with the financial support of the Swiss Government, nor the 100 senior officials from Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation and Ukraine who attended the four special GATT/WTO courses funded by the United States in 1994, 1995, 1996 and 1997. List of participants
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