Trade Policy Issues

The ADB Institute conducted a capacity-building workshop on “Trade Policy Issues” in Singapore from 25 February to 1 March 2002. The workshop was co-hosted with the Technical Cooperation Directorate (TCD), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore and the Economics and Research Department of the ADB. Twenty-eight middle- to senior-level government officials and chamber of commerce and industry officials from 14 ADB developing member countries in South Asia, South East Asia and the People’s Republic of China, attended the workshop. Dr. R. B. Adhikari, Senior Capacity Building Specialist, ADB Institute designed and coordinated the workshop, which featured prominent resource speakers from the academia, governments, research institutes and multilateral organizations. The workshop’s central goal was to strengthen the participants’ understanding of the various global and regional trade policy issues, particularly in the context of the outcomes of the Doha Ministerial Meeting and their economic implications for the Asian countries.

At the reception in the premises of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Tan Gim Kheng, Deputy Director, TCD, welcomed the participants and pointed out that the workshop was intended to provide a comprehensive overview of a wide range of trade policy issues, including conceptual and practical issues for the developing Asian countries. At the opening of the workshop, Adhikari introduced the participants, resource persons and the ADB and the ADB Institute officials. Dr. Masaru Yoshitomi, Dean, ADB Institute, welcomed all the participants and thanked them for their participation.

In his opening remarks, Yoshitomi stressed that trade liberalization should result in raising the incomes of the poor by creating new jobs, by enhancing their assets, or by a combination of both. As most poor people in the region live mainly in rural areas, their main livelihood will be agriculture. Therefore a large part of the expected increases in incomes should come from the agriculture or related activities in the rural areas. Trade liberalization should therefore reach these rural areas so as to provide the rural population with opportunities to enhance rural household incomes, particularly of small farmers. Therefore, farming and farm-related activities should be made more productive and efficient to capture new market opportunities. At the same time, concerted efforts need to be made at the regional and international levels to improve economic cooperation and help developing countries gain increased access to markets, development finance and technical assistance.

The Doha Ministerial Meeting has made progress in addressing and resolving some of the thorny issues relating to the next round of multilateral trade talks and has agreed on the Doha Development Round. Inputs in the coming months from individual member governments and their business communities will be crucial in determining the eventual results of subsequent negotiations. Given that the welfare implications of many of the policies that are now emerging on the international negotiating agenda may depend importantly on the identification and consideration of impacts on local stakeholders, it has become increasingly important that the policy mix chosen reflects the assessment of local interests and concerns. Thus it is imperative that there is a participation of the business community and civil society in the preparation for the next rounds of multilateral trade talks.

In the context of “new regionalism”, Yoshitomi urged policymakers in developing countries to have a good understanding of the economic implications of the various standards, regulatory frameworks associated with national and international trade and the appropriate institutional set-ups to be established for their effective implementation. Economic cooperation plays an important role in deepening and widening economic integration in sub-national, national and global markets. It has a strong potential in promoting common projects among countries in the region, which in turn will promote growth and reduce poverty.

Yoshitomi then introduced the main objectives and the scope of the workshop to the participants. He highlighted that the workshop was aimed at: (i) updating the participants on the emerging trade policy issues; (ii) enhancing their conceptual understanding of the policy issues; and (iii) sharpening their practical skills in trade policy analysis and debate. The knowledge and skills acquired in the workshop are expected to enable participants to improve the effectiveness of their work in their own countries and to promote a more active participation of their countries in international trade, and benefit from it in terms of faster economic growth and poverty reduction. Building upon the last two workshops on the same topic (on which the materials were provided on the Internet), this year’s workshop was designed to cover emerging policy issues in the area of free trade and economic cooperation; lessons from Singapore’s experience in trade policy reforms and development; the key outcomes of the Doha Ministerial Round; implications of PRC’s increasing openness; and the economic implications of the standards, rules of origin and the need for improving trade facilitation and customs administration.

In order for the ADB Institute to have a wider outreach, Yoshitomi noted that a hybrid approach based on a combination of Internet and classroom-based training courses, with intensive and interactive sessions and less lecturing would be designed and conducted shortly. Internet-based self-learning opportunities would also be made available to alumni—for the life time learning of all the people who have attended the Institute’s earlier capacity-building and training programs. He went further to say that what the Institute had accomplished before was quite encouraging, however, it was not enough. The Institute would need to reach the thousands and thousands of government officials and policymakers and it needed to innovate further to increase its effectiveness in terms of both cost and quality. This would only be possible through the increased use of Internet and deployment of multimediabased and innovative learning programs.

Mr. Jeffery Liang, Senior Economist, ADB, gave his opening remarks of behalf of the ADB. Liang noted that the workshop was timely given the significant recent events taking place in Doha and the region; namely PRC’s entry into the WTO, the launch of a new round of multilateral trade negotiations, and the proliferation of free trade agreements within the region as well as in the rest of the world. In respect to the “Doha Development Agenda”, there is a need for policymakers in developing countries to strengthen their analytical and negotiating capacity and to shape the WTO rules to their interests.

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