AT the launch of an Asia-Pacific Regional Trade Policy Course for officials in New Delhi yesterday, WTO Chief Pascal Lamy said that this course will help developing countries build the necessary long-term capacity to be active members of the WTO family. Helping them in mainstreaming trade into their national plans for development and for poverty reduction is a long-term goal of the global trade body, he added.

Mr Lamy said that the Regional Trade Policy Courses are testament to the importance the WTO accords to partnerships with the academic community. These partnerships, which include the WTO Chairs Programme, are designed to help build local institutional and human capacity for such training in developing countries, to contribute to the development of WTO-related curricula in academic institutions of higher learning, and to promote WTO-relevant research.

The WTO Chief stated that these courses reflect a broader WTO Progressive Learning Strategy. This Strategy has identified two main training paths, one for “generalists” and another for “specialists”. And each training path consists of a sequence of three levels: basic, intermediate and advanced. Regional Trade Policy Courses are considered an intermediate level activity. They focus on providing participants with a solid basic knowledge of the WTO agreements, including in the context of negotiations, and an understanding of trade policy development in their region, he added.