he week-long course explored the domestic and foreign value-added content of an economy's exports and the impact of measuring trade in value-added terms on policy-making. The course also taught participants various ways of assessing the impact of GVCs on trade, particularly from a development perspective, and to get familiarized with TiVA online databases.

One of the course participants, Abhirarm Chandrasen, Trade Officer at Thailand's Department of Trade Negotiations, said: "My objective was to gain a better understanding of how to measure Thailand's exports in value terms. This will be very useful as we are currently engaged in trade negotiations under ASEAN to further our regional integration."

Another course participant, Arlina Gomez Fernandez, Coordinator Directorate of Economic Research and Analysis at Costa Rica's Ministry of Foreign Trade, said: "Learning how to analyse our country's participation in GVCs gave us a clearer view of Costa Rica's integration in global trade. Of particular interest to us is how to increase the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises in GVCs as they account for 90% of Costa Rica's businesses."  

Ana Maria del Carmen Vera Ganoza, Director of Economic Studies at Peru's Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism, who also took part in the course, said: "This course is particularly timely as Peru was included just last year in the WTO's TiVA database. It helped me gain more autonomy in using and measuring data, which will guide me through policy-making."

Another course participant, Vanessa Carvalho Dos Santos, Coordinator of Economic Studies and Strategic Information at Brazil's Ministry of Industry, Trade and Services, said: "This course helped us gain more experience in dealing with trade-related data. This will be useful for our work on how to integrate Brazil more fully into global value chains, which is one of the objectives of our current bilateral trade negotiations."

In addition to presentations from WTO staff and international experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the World Intellectual Property Organization, the course featured demonstrations of databases, educative and interactive hands-on exercises and quizzes, round-table discussions and presentations of GVC case studies in developing economies.

The programme is available here.

The WTO maintains a portal to support the exchange of projects, experiences and practical approaches in measuring and analysing TiVA and GVCs.  The portal can be accessed here.

Further information on WTO technical assistance and training can be found here.

List of participants: