Date: November 30 - December, 4 2009

Location: TRAPCA Campus, Eastern & Southern African Management Institute Headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania 

Summary: Preferential trade agreements are an increasingly present feature in trade policy making: in recent years, preferential trade agreements have proliferated in the developing world, with many countries belonging to more than two agreements. Agreements are also becoming more complex as the scope of cooperation covered go well beyond industrial tariffs reductions into services trade liberalization, regulatory disciplines and other areas of economic international cooperation.

Objective: To convey some of the most recent thinking on regional trade integration, to increase awareness and offer a forum to discuss in detail the main economic implications of regional trade agreements for Eastern and Southern Africa, and in particular what is the impact of negotiating on some the new issues covered by them. It also aims at providing participating policymakers and analysts with the appropriate knowledge and tools to analyze (and design) such agreements and ensure that regional agreements help maximize the benefits from more open trade for developing countries.

Goals:

• Gathering in a coherent structure the core concepts discussed in the theoretical and empirical literature on trade and regionalism.
• Conveying recent analysis on regional trade integration, focusing on the specific conceptual characteristics of preferential trade liberalization compared to multilateral or unilateral reforms.
• Increasing the awareness of participants to the main policy issues they should consider when designing and implementing preferential trade agreements.
• Providing participants with, or guide them towards, the appropriate knowledge and tools (literature and case study review; policy guidance; analytical tools) to analyze (and design) such agreements, investigate the specific issues raised by regional liberalization, and ensure that regional agreements help maximize the benefits from more open trade.
• Offering a forum to discuss in detail the economic implications of preferential trade agreements.

Agenda

 

 

• Trainers and researchers in academia, think tanks and regional research networks concerned with food and agricultural trade.
• Government officials (from trade, foreign, finance/economics, industry, and sectoral ministries and agencies) directly involved in managing and negotiating regional trade agreements.
• Officials in development or planning ministries, whose tasks increasingly include keeping track of ongoing regional trade negotiations and fitting such efforts into the broader and longer-term process of development.
• Representatives from professional associations and from consumer groups typically interested in the impact of regional trade policy/negotiations.

Important  Dates
Deadline for applications: 30 October 2009 (Interested applicants are encouraged to apply early, as admission decisions will be made on a rolling basis.)

Selected participants notified: 6 November 2009
Confirmation of participation: 13 November 2009

Language: The course will be conducted entirely in English.

Registration and Other Costs: Participants from African countries will be assessed a US$200 tuition fee, and participants from non-African countries will be assessed a US$400 tuition fee. 

Participants are expected to fund their travel and subsistence expenses from their sponsoring agencies budgets and available donors funding (two coffee breaks and lunches each day will be provided at the course venue).  All participants are expected to arrange and finance their own travel and accommodations. 

Sponsorship: A limited number of sponsorships are available to cover course fees and either travel or accommodation for exceptional candidates.

For more Information: The course is jointly organized by the World Bank Institute (WBI) and the Trade Policy Training Centre in Africa (TRAPCA). 

The application/registration package can be accessed by clicking on the following weblink:
http://info.worldbank.org/etools/wbi_learning/activity.cfm?sch_id=GCR10-00-042

All inquiries on registration and general aspects of the course should be sent to:

• Beatrice Wangari, TRAPCA at beatrice.wangari@trapca.org 
• Raymond K. Boumbouya, WBI at rboumbouya@worldbank.org

All inquiries regarding the content of this course should be sent to the co-task managers:

• Caiphas Chekwoti, TRAPCA at cchekwoti@trapca.org 
• Jean-Christophe Maur, WBI at jmaur@worldbank.org