WTO NEWS: SPEECHES — DG PASCAL LAMY

2011 WTO Regional Trade Policy Course for Asia-Pacific in partnership with the Centre for WTO Studies at the Indian Institute for Foreign Trade, New Delhi, India

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The Hon. Commerce and Industry Minister of India, Mr. Anand Sharma,
Dr. Rahul Khullar,
Mr. S.N. Menon,
Mr. K. T. Chacko,
Professor Abhijit Das,

Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It gives me great pleasure to be here in Delhi today to officially open the 2011 WTO Regional Trade Policy Course for the Asia-Pacific region.

An old proverb says “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”.  It is this ancient proverb that best illustrates what the WTO technical assistance and capacity-building stands for: helping developing countries build the necessary long-term capacity to be active members of the WTO family. Helping them in mainstreaming trade into their national plans for development and for poverty reduction.

Technical assistance and capacity building are part of the wider “Aid for Trade” agenda, and as such they are key development components of the multilateral trading system.

Regional Trade Policy Courses are testament to the importance the WTO accords to partnerships with the academic community.  These partnerships, which include the WTO Chairs Programme, are designed to help build local institutional and human capacity for such training in developing countries, to contribute to the development of WTO-related curricula in academic institutions of higher learning, and to promote WTO-relevant research.

These courses reflect a broader WTO Progressive Learning Strategy.  This Strategy has identified two main training paths, one for “generalists” and another for “specialists”.  And each training path consists of a sequence of three levels:  basic, intermediate and advanced.  Regional Trade Policy Courses are considered an intermediate level activity. They focus on providing participants with a solid basic knowledge of the WTO agreements, including in the context of negotiations, and an understanding of trade policy development in their region. 

The regional dimension of this course provides space to address local realities and specificities. The co-delivery by lecturers from the WTO Secretariat, together with up to 20 academics and policy specialists from this region, allows participants to benefit from the complementarity between WTO and regional expertise.

The WTO is a member-driven organization. Its members have to be prepared to articulate and defend their interests and legitimate expectations.  But they can do so only when their trade policy officials are knowledgeable about multilateral trade agreements and well versed in trade policy matters.  I am convinced that the regional Trade Policy Course we are launching today will provide an invaluable tool to Asia Pacific trade policy officials to promote and defend their interests at the WTO.

We are extremely proud to have “The Centre for WTO Studies” at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade as our new partner for the Asia-Pacific region.  Taking on the mantle from our previous successful partnerships with the University of Hong Kong from 2004 to 2006 and the National University of Singapore from 2007 to 2010, I have no doubt that the Centre for WTO Studies will further enrich the value of the Regional Trade Policy Course project. 

The Centre is an important source of WTO expertise as evidenced by its broad body of research and publications, as well as by its extensive technical assistance programme in India, but also in the region and further afield.   We are fortunate to have the participation of faculty members from the Centre and from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade as regional experts in this course.  These strengths, along with the Centre's strong international networking and administrative capabilities, will prove invaluable. 

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. K.T. Chacko, Director of the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, for his personal support and commitment towards this project. I would also like to thank Professor Das, Head of the Centre for WTO Studies, for his support, as well as the members of the Faculty for their outstanding work in preparing for the RTPC.

This Regional Trade Policy Course is also greatly honoured to have the patronage of Mr. S.N. Menon, former Commerce Secretary.  With his distinguished career and achievements, I know Mr. Menon will provide inspiration and guidance to the participants and we are very grateful for his invaluable contribution to this project. 

I would also like to thank the Indian Government Authorities, especially the Ministry of Commerce - and in particular Minister Sharma — as well as the Ministry of Home Affairs for their on-going support in the organization of the course.

The first Regional Trade Policy Course took place in Africa in 2002 and then expanded into the Caribbean and Latin America, as well as this region.  Since the first Asia-Pacific course in Hong Kong in 2004, a total of 184 government officials have successfully completed this programme.  In addition, up to 50 regional academics and trade specialists from numerous universities and institutions in the region have been actively involved.  We are pleased also to have benefited from the involvement of institutions such as the International Trade Centre, the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and the United Nations Economic Community for Asia Pacific.

Turning now to the participants. Having been selected to participate in this course by your authorities, you have a responsibility to your countries, which have invested in you and entrusted you with their confidence. You will be the key driver of the success of the training activity as the course will feature a high degree of interactivity. I strongly encourage you to engage wholeheartedly in this course and to benefit from a fruitful exchange of ideas, perspectives and opinions. 

You should benefit from the location of the course in India to learn as much as possible from the course, as well as from the host country. India is a good example of how trade can be used to generate growth, create employment and reduce poverty. This was the very essence of the process of trade opening and structural reform initiated in the early 1990s by Prime Minister Singh.  As a result India's economy was among the first in the world to recover after the recent global financial crisis. 

Asia has shown how more open trade, when intelligently combined with appropriate domestic policies on education, technology and social safety nets, can be an engine for growth, for employment and ultimately for poverty reduction. This is why now, more than ever, when we hear many talk about a crisis in multilateralism, it is time to speak up for the value of the multilateral trading system and of the WTO.  It is time to recognise the enormous contribution it makes every day to the smooth flow of trade in goods and in services, to the peaceful settlement of trade disputes, to building capacity in developing countries. We must recognise it for what it is: the only operational system of global economic governance, as was evidence during the recent crisis.

But I guess it is also time to think seriously about how we can continue to advance global trade opening, how we can progress in updating the existing trading rules. And in so doing, I see three key ingredients: leadership, pragmatism and determination.  Leadership is crucial because trade negotiations are governments' actions and governing requires making choices, taking decisions and being ready to defend them at home. Pragmatism is needed to find paths that lead us to a final result; the path may not always be straight, we may need to take long winding roads, we may need to move at different speeds but the final goal will be worth it. Determination is a must; we cannot give up just because the slope is too steep, because it takes too long or because the headlines are negative; we need determination because WTO negotiations are a collective enterprise of 153 members building for the long-term. We are now preparing the 8th WTO Ministerial Conference which will take place in December and I am confident that the WTO members — the stakeholders of the global trading system — will be able to chart a path forward.

I wish you all the best in this course that starts now and hope to see many of you become active actors in the trade field, both in Geneva and at home. Thank you

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