A three-day residential training on “WTO and Trade Negotiation Skills” was organized earlier this year in Kathmandu by the New Delhi Office (NDO) of International Food Policy Research Institute in partnership with USAID. The main objective of the training was to improve understanding of the participants on the outcomes of the WTO ministerial conferences (Bali and Nairobi) and build trade negotiation capacity of Nepalese policymakers. With more than 20 participants, including policymakers, government officials, and experts, the training was inaugurated by Mr. Naindra Prasad Upadhyay, Secretary of Ministry of Commerce of Nepal. In his opening speech, Mr. Upadhyay drew attention to the integration of Nepal into the global economy. Keeping in mind the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, he emphasized that trade can be improved through enhanced economic networks, improving the value chain, and revitalizing competitiveness. Further, he talked about the importance of negotiation skills in trade and the need to build such capacities in Nepal.
The training had six tailor-made sessions designed to address trade issues related to Nepal, focusing largely on WTO themes and trade negotiation skills. The sessions were: (i) WTO’s agreement on agriculture, (ii) WTO and food security, (iii) Preferential rules of origin for LDCs, (iv) Trade negotiation skills, (v) WTO and tariffs barriers, and (vi) Trade facilitation. Each session was conducted by experts from IFPRI and other organizations, consisting of interactive training with lectures, presentations, round-tables discussions, and simulation exercises.
First, the participants were made familiar with WTO related issues in the context of Nepal. Historically, Nepal has taken a number of steps to promote its exports for sustainable and inclusive economic growth, poverty reduction, and an improvement in the living standard of its population. However, inadequate trade negotiation skills have made it difficult for the country to achieve desired outcomes. The WTO operates based on rules, and the agreements depend on the ability of country representatives to negotiate. The pre-requisites for good negotiation skills of a country are: know yourself (actions and needs), know the others (actions and needs), and understand interaction between others (political economy, concessions and preference erosion). With internationalization, there has been an increase in the relative price of agriculture as compared to other goods. This is an opportunity for countries like Nepal, and can help them in economic transformation.
In another session, participants were given an overview on domestic support, WTO and food security, and perception of Doha Development Agenda in the context of Nepal. Participants were made to do a simulation exercise to understand the implications of the new Minimum Support Price for paddy on Nepal’s trade position in WTO. This hands on training can easily be used by policymakers to inform their decisions in the future.
Apart from this, some sessions focused on technical concepts in WTO trade. One such session, for example, discussed the Rules of Origin (RoO) criteria which is used for determining the country of origin of a product, for it to be eligible for market access on a preferential basis. RoO are needed under preferential trade agreements (bilateral and regional) and can help in altering the negotiations between countries.
Thus the three-day training session helped in building capacity of policy makers in trade negotiations. The sessions, designed to have a balance between theory, technical skills, and hands on learning, aimed to provide participants a complete understanding of trade negotiations. Due to the success of this effort, IFPRI and USAID are planning follow-up sessions and similar capacity strengthening activities in other countries. For more information on this activity please contact Sunil Saroj at s.saroj@cgiar.org.