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HANDBOOK ON ACCESSION TO THE WTO: CHAPTER 3

Technical assistance and training for acceding countries

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3.2 WTO Secretariat

Applicants benefit from WTO TRTA in two ways. On the one hand, Secretariat officials provide technical assistance to their delegations at all stages of the accession process. On the other, they also benefit from the regular WTO programme of TRTA organized by the WTO Institute for Training and Technical Cooperation (ITTC).

Funding for WTO TRTA has increased considerably since the adoption of the Ministerial Declaration launching the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) and a new round of negotiations.²⁷ Total funds available for 2006 were SFr. 28 million. Of this, nearly SFr. 6 million (21 percent) was included in the regular budget of the WTO, the remainder coming from voluntary contributions and funds rolled over from the previous year. This figure is roughly comparable to funds available in 2004 and 2005, which were SFr 27 million and 22 million respectively. A total of 28 WTO Members donated funds during that three-year period. Seven donors gave SFR 1 million or more in 2006 — in alphabetical order, these were France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom, USA. The present level of activity is linked to the implementation of the DDA and, at Doha, Ministers agreed that “there is a need for technical assistance to benefit from secure and predictable funding”²⁸. This notwithstanding, only moneys included in advance in the regular budget can be regarded as truly secure. Securing adequate funding presents a continuing challenge.

Accessions related assistance

The Accessions Division of the Secretariat²⁹ assists acceding governments to prepare documents required for the accession process (Memorandum on the Foreign Trade Regime, replies to Members’ questions, initial and revised offers, as well as other technical documents) and responds to their questions regarding WTO rules and enforcement requirements. The bulk of this technical assistance is provided from Geneva, and missions to the acceding country are a complementary tool used as appropriate. Follow-up is systematic and carried out from Geneva. Policy level missions, which also have a technical assistance component, have had an increasingly critical role to play in advancing accessions in terms of creating awareness and commitment at high levels of government, Parliament, media, and in the public and private sector. These missions are often undertaken with the Chair of the Working Party. Progress achieved by acceding governments in moving their accession process forward is direct evidence of the impact and sustainability of technical assistance activities. In order to better respond to acceding governments’ needs, in 2005 the Accession Division developed a simulation exercise on market access negotiations on goods and several of these exercises have been carried out since then, upon request of acceding governments. Complementary and coordinated support is also provided by other Divisions of the Secretariat in their specific areas of expertise.

WTO Programme of trade-related technical assistance

WTO TRTA is demand-driven, the onus being on the acceding governments themselves to formulate their requests for assistance. The organization must deal with a demand that has increased over the past few years within the constraints of the human and financial resources available. It tackles this in a number of ways.

On the demand side, efforts have recently been made to see that requests from governments for technical assistance and training are based on needs assessments that reflect their overall priorities rather than on ad hoc requests from different government agencies. Applicants therefore need to assess their needs, assign priorities and coordinate requests made by their different government agencies involved in the accession process before forwarding their request to the WTO Secretariat. These consolidated requests are sent both to the Director of the Accessions Division and the Director of the Institute for Training and Technical Cooperation at WTO.

For its part, the WTO has made an effort to raise governments’ awareness of the opportunities on offer and to ensure that the annual TRTA plans respond in a flexible way to the needs that have been identified. It has to be recognized, however, that some rationing is necessary. One way already mentioned is to give priority to least-developed countries. Another is to adjust the mix of products offered so as to ensure that all WTO Members and acceders can benefit from a range of technical assistance activities. So, while the WTO continues to offer the resource-intensive 12 week training courses at its headquarters and similar activities in different regions and sub-regions, it has put a large part of its available resources into short activities organized on a regional or sub-regional basis and held in the regions themselves. These are cost-effective because a relatively large number of participants attend and the administrative expenses involved are less than for Geneva-based activities. However, the need for more targeted TRTA at the national level is obvious and has been recognized.

In 2006³⁰, the WTO implemented a total of 486 technical assistance activities. Of these, 163 were regional events, 246 were national events, and 77 were activities organized by other agencies with WTO participation. A total of 442 of these activities were held outside the headquarters in Geneva. The average length of these activities was five days. Representatives of all 32 acceders except Andorra attended WTO TRTA activities during the course of the year 2006, an average of 17 events per applicant. Officials from many applicants benefited from the longer general trade policy training courses. Despite efforts to raise awareness on the availability of technical assistance activities provided by the WTO, only 44 national events were organized for acceders during that year.

On the whole, the WTO has been successful in giving priority to least-developed countries. Several products, such as the three-week introduction course, reference centres, the Netherlands trainee programme and the financing of participation in WTO Ministerial Conferences, have been developed to meet their needs.³¹

The main products relevant to acceders include:

• National activities

• technical missions of several days to deal with issues specific to the individual applicant that cannot be dealt with at the regional or sub-regional level. LDCs are entitled to receive three national activities per year and developing countries two.

• General trade policy courses

• twelve-week training courses at headquarters in Geneva;
   
• twelve-week training courses in regions and sub-regions;
   
• three-week introduction courses for LDCs in Geneva;
   
• short (mostly one to two weeks) training courses in regions and sub-regions.

The relatively long training courses, which originated in the 1950’s, are still the WTO TRTA’s flagship product. The training courses in the regions and sub-regions are often held in cooperation with local universities and the aim is that these local bodies should progressively take more responsibility and ownership of the courses. These are designed to ensure that participants are exposed to all activities of the WTO and develop relevant practical skills as well as an extensive network of contacts.

• Specialized courses in Geneva

One or two-week courses on e.g. dispute settlement or trade negotiations that include briefing on WTO work in progress and emphasize interactive learning, practical exercises, case studies and debates. Infrequent because costly.

• Geneva Week

One-week events for delegations that do not have a representation in Geneva, held twice a year to brief them on developments in the work of the WTO and to provide them with an opportunity of making their views known. These events have proved of great value to acceders who often hold meetings in connection with their accession on the margins of Geneva Week.

• Topic-based regional and sub-regional activities

Usually seminars and workshops (which include case studies and simulation exercises as well as simple presentations). They usually focus on narrowly defined subjects, e.g. anti-dumping, customs valuation or technical barriers to trade, but may also deal with broader aspects of the system, such as dispute settlement or the multilateral trade negotiations. They take place in the region or sub-region concerned.

• Trainee programmes and internships

Regular interns are attached for up to 24 weeks to the WTO Secretariat or to Permanent Missions in Geneva. The aim of one programme is to provide up to 20 junior public servants per year with the possibility of spending up to ten months with the WTO or their mission in order to complete well defined tasks of specific relevance to the beneficiary government, such as an assessment of their needs for TRTA.³²

• Reference centres

The centres are usually located in the Ministry responsible for the WTO, to provide access to on-line and off-line WTO-related trade information and documentation. Initial training is provided and coordinators at each centre help users learn how to access technical and legal documentation.

• eTraining programme

The objective of eTraining is to ensure that participants obtain a strengthened understanding of the multilateral trading system and its operation. The eTraining website provides interactive courses over the internet and allows government officials online access to the training material and their assigned tutors. The programme is evolving and the aim is to reorganize the courses and to increase the number and variety of subjects covered. Further information will be found on the WTO website.³³

Notes:

27. This paragraph is largely based on Annual Report on Technical Assistance and Training, 2006, WTO document WT/COMTD/W/157. See also Plan for 2007, WTO document WT/COMTD/W/151 and Corr.1. back to text
28. Doha Ministerial Declaration, para 40. TRTA is dealt with in no fewer than 12 paragraphs of the Doha Ministerial Declaration, 14 November 2001, paras 16, 21, 24, 26, 27, 33, 38-40, 42and 43. back to text
29. WTO document WT/COMTD/W/157, paras 121 — 124. back to text
30. This paragraph is based on WTO document WT/COMTD/W/157 and information provided by the WTO Secretariat. back to text
31. WTO document WT/COMTD/W/146, para 15. back to text
32. Netherlands Trainee Programme (http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/devel_e/train_e/netherlands_prog_e.htm).  back to text
33. http://www.wto.org/english/res_e/d_learn_e/d_learn_e.htm. back to text

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