The training activity was offered as part of the WTO's technical assistance and capacity building courses and represents the highest level of “specialist” training within the WTO's progressive learning framework. The course taught participants how to select the appropriate approach to answer their trade policy research questions, how to collect the data, and how to implement their analyses. 

The course is based on the joint publication UNCTAD/WTO Practical Guide to Trade Policy Analysis. It was designed by the WTO Economic Research and Statistics Division (ERSD) and delivered jointly with the WTO Institute for Training and Technical Cooperation (ITTC). 

The course also benefitted from the expertise of Drexel University's Professor Yoto Yotov, who. Professor Yotov presented the latest advancements in the field, including  a model to simulate the long term impact of trade policy changes.

In his opening remarks to the course, WTO's Deputy Director-General Yi Xiaozhun noted that good policy needs to be backed by good analysis and that solid quantitative analysis of the economic effects of trade policy can help discipline the process of policy formulation.

Multilateral, regional and bilateral trade negotiations, as well as the formulation and implementation of appropriate policies at a national level, require extensive analyses of economic data and assessments of the impact of trade policy decisions.  During the course, participants became familiar with sources of data (focusing on trade in goods) and with methodologies for trade and trade policy analysis, including calculation of trade flows and trade policy indicators.The course was also a platform for discussion on ways to enhance the use of research in policy making.

WTO Deputy Director-General Yonov Frederick Agah closed the course by encouraging the participants to put the tools they learned in the course to good use, and to share their enhanced knowledge and skills with their colleagues back home for the benefit of well-informed policy making.

The course programme is available here.

List of the participants: