Presenters: Philip Schuler, Senior Economist, PRMTR
                   Azita Amjadi, Information Office, DECDG

Description: The course will train participants on how to:

1. retrieve trade and tariffs data, and non tariff barriers information from four databases,
2. perform tariff cut simulations, and (iii) analyze the data.

The World Integrated Trade Solution (WITS) is a software developed by the World Bank, in close collaboration with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and gives access to four databases:

• the UNSD COMTRADE database, which contains bilateral, HS 6-digit level data for over 270 countries and geographic entities, some of which have been reporting since 1962
• UNCTAD’s TRAINS database which contains national tariff line level information on imports, tariffs, para-tariffs and non-tariff measures for 169 countries
• the (WTO) IDB database that contains imports by commodity and partner countries as well as MFN applied tariffs for over 120 countries at the most detailed commodity level of the national tariffs
• the WTO CTS database, the official source for bound tariffs, which are concessions made by WTO countries.

Objective: The objective of this course is to enhance the analytical capacity of country teams in dealing with trade data and policy issues. At the end of this course, participants will be able to retrieve trade, tariff, and non tariff data for all reporting countries, under various nomenclatures and classifications, and at different levels of disaggregation.  They will also be able to simulate the impact of unilateral, regional and multilateral tariff changes on trade, protection levels, and revenues.

Contact: Faezeh Foroutan - 202-473-7680