Technical assistance and training for acceding countries

3.3 WTO Members and other organizations

Some Members provide technical assistance to acceders bilaterally, sometimes on a large scale, on matters such as the preparation of the accession documentation, the implementation of domestic reforms (e.g. the transition to market economy), the establishment of the necessary legal and institutional framework and the drafting of WTO-consistent legislation.

International organizations, such as the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the International Trade Centre (ITC), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Customs Organization (WCO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), also provide technical assistance relevant to WTO accession.

Formal agreements between the WTO and the IMF and the World Bank provide a framework for consultations aimed at achieving greater coherence in global economic policy-making.³⁴ Among the matters of operational concern is the interaction among the three organizations in their work relating to the governments that are in accession to the WTO³⁵ and cooperation in trade-related technical assistance (TRTA) and capacity-building in this respect.³⁶ The WTO and the World Bank also cooperate in the design and delivery of Joint Regional Training Courses for acceders.³⁷

Cooperation with UNCTAD has been close. UNCTAD has extensive experience in the provision of technical assistance to acceding governments. The general objectives are to: assist national officials in elaborating optimal approaches in the initial phase of the WTO accession process, particularly in the preparation of an inventory of relevant problems to be solved both internally or externally; to improve national officials’ negotiating capacity, by strengthening their understanding of strategies and techniques used in multilateral trade negotiations; to provide advice in trade policy formulation, particularly relating to WTO accession negotiations; and to strengthen the capacities of trade-supporting national institutional structures (including the academic community) through training and joint analysis of relevant issues.³⁸ UNCTAD has delivered this assistance by undertaking advisory missions and working directly with national negotiating teams; helping in the preparation of documentation required by the WTO accession negotiations; preparing analytical papers and briefings for national policy-makers; organizing brainstorming meetings and seminars; and disseminating trade policy information.³⁹

The WTO also participates in multi-agency programmes in which the agencies provide technical assistance to applicants, each within its own area of competence. A useful tool in this context is the Integrated Framework for Trade-Related Technical Assistance for Least-Developed countries (IF) initiated in October 1997 by the WTO together with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the International Trade Centre (ITC), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank.⁴⁰ Its existence is a recognition that increased international trade can generate resources needed for sustainable development and poverty alleviation but that LDCs will be able to take advantage of the trading opportunities created by WTO only if they address supply-side constraints by building their capacity to trade and by integrating trade policies into their national development strategies. The IF facilitates a coordinated response by the six agencies and development partners (each in their own area of competence) to the needs identified by each LDC participant. The IF process is in four parts: awareness-building of the importance of trade for development; preparation of a Diagnostic Trade Integration Study (DTIS), including a plan of action for integrating into the global trading system; integrating the plan of action into the national development plan; and implementing the plan of action in partnership with the development cooperation community.

The relevance of the IF for acceding LDCs is evident. Their decision to accede is also a decision to integrate into the world economy but to do this successfully they need to accord trade the necessary priority in their development strategies and to mobilize the necessary resources to deal with supply side constraints. Ten of the 43 LDCs now participating in the IF have either already acceded to the WTO (Cambodia and Nepal) or are in the process of accession (Cape Verde, Ethiopia, Lao PDR, Samoa, Sao Tomé and Principe, Sudan, Vanuatu and Yemen). Only one acceding LDC is not yet a participant (Bhutan). Lao PDR, Sao Tomé and Principe and Sudan are in the early stages of the process but Window II projects have already been approved for Cambodia, Ethiopia, Nepal and Yemen.⁴¹ The IF Working Group has agreed to undertake technical reviews of Vanuatu, and Afghanistan.

The Joint Vienna Institute was launched in 1992 by the Austrian authorities and a number of international organizations (the WTO, the IMF , the World Bank, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the Organization for European Cooperation and Development (OECD), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)) to respond to the demand from economies in transition, including acceders, to train officials in market economics and the free enterprise system. It provides training to governments making the transition from centrally-planned to market-based economies and offers approximately 60 seminars, generally of short duration, in specialized topics that reflect the expertise of its various sponsoring organizations, and a ten-week course in applied economic policy.⁴²

The Standards and Trade Development Facility (STDF) was launched in 2002 as a joint initiative of the WTO and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), the World Bank and the WHO. Its aim is to assist developing countries enhance their expertise and capacity to analyze and to implement international sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards, improving their human, animal and plant health situation, and thus their ability to gain and maintain market access. The STDF provides grant financing for developing countries seeking to comply with international SPS standards and hence gain or maintain market access. There have been 22 projects and 23 project preparation grants (PPGs) approved since the STDF’s creation and in 2006 the first projects were successfully completed. PPGs have been approved for Cambodia and Nepal, which have already acceded, and for Cape Verde, another LDC in the process of accession. A new medium-term strategy agreed in December 2006 puts much greater emphasis on information sharing and co-ordination in the supply and receipt of SPS-related technical co-operation but the STDF continues also to act as a source of funding for projects. So far, 11 donors have committed funds to the STDF and, with a new operating strategy in place, it is hoped that the annual funding target of US$5 million will be met. Forty percent of facility resources are committed for least-developed countries and other low income economies.⁴³

 

Notes:

34. Agreements between the WTO and the IMF and the World Bank — Decision adopted by the General Council at its meeting on 7, 8 and 13 November 1996, WTO document WT/L/194. back to text
35. IMF/World Bank/WTO, “Report of the Managing Director, President and Director-General on Coherence” of 21 October 1998 (WTO document WT/GC/13). back to text
36. WT/GC/W/140. back to text
37. WTO document WT/COMTD/W/157, para 248. back to text
38. Source: UNCTAD, Review of Technical Cooperation Activities of UNCTAD (Report by the Secretary-General of UNCTAD) to the Trade and Development Board, Working Party on the Medium-term Plan and the Programme Budget, Forty-first session (Geneva, 15-19 September 2003): WTO documents TD/B/50/2/Add.1 and TD/B/WP/163/Add.1 (11 August 2003). back to text
39. Ibid, paragraph 58. back to text
40. See http://www.integratedframework.org and http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/devel_e/teccop_e/if_e.htm. back to text
41. http://www.integratedframework.org. back to text
42. See http://jvi.org. back to text
43. See www.standardsfacility.org. and WTO’s Global Technical Assistance Database (GTAD). For an update on the operation of the STDF, see WTO document G/SPS/GEN/718 of 31 July 2006. back to text