The eight-week long course runs from 31 July to 22 September 2017. It was opened by the Under-Secretary for Trade Negotiations of Ecuador's Ministry of Foreign Trade, Mr Juan Carlos Sánchez, the President of the Andean Center for International Studies of the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, Dr César Montaño, and Counselor at the WTO's Institute for Training and Technical Cooperation, Mr Juan Manuel Fernandez. The on-site Academic Coordinator for the course is Professor Michel Levi. 

RTPCs are intermediate (Progressive Learning Strategy Level 2) training courses specifically designed for government officials working on trade-related issues who have already undertaken basic WTO training.  The courses are held in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Central Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus, Arab-Middle East and the Caribbean and are organized by the WTO in partnership with regional academic institutions.

Since 2014, the RTPC for Latin American countries has been organized in Quito, Ecuador, in partnership with the Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar. The university has played a pivotal role over the years in ensuring the success of these courses through its administrative and academic support.

The courses are co-delivered by officials from the WTO Secretariat, trade policy specialists and academic experts from the region. The course curriculum covers the WTO agreements and other trade-related issues, including regional trade policy issues.  The courses are delivered through a combination of lectures, co-lecturing with regional academics/trade policy specialists, case studies and exercises, and include a final exam. A related objective of the co-lecturing approach is to foster networks among government officials, regional trade experts and regional trade-related institutions, with a view to enhancing dialogue on national and regional trade policy issues.