Posted May. 25\/06<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve all been in a situation where we agreed to something before we considered all the angles or asked the right questions. For most of us, that means we were running a school bake sale or leasing a car with a few extras. For trade agreement negotiators, the situation has considerably higher stakes.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIf you don\u2019t have all the knowledge and technical skills you need to participate in a trade agreement, your country will never be able to take full advantage of any agreement it signs,\u201d says Phil Rourke, MA\/89, executive director of the Centre for Trade Policy and Law (CTPL), a think tank housed at Carleton. \u201cFor an agreement to succeed in the long term, everyone needs to understand it, believe in it and implement it for the good of all involved.\u201d<\/p>\n
CTPL is a world leader in providing trade policy capacity-building programs. It delivers training and advisory and research services in more than 25 countries, many with developing and transition economies. For the past four years, CTPL has worked on the Trade Readiness Technical Assistance Project in Central America, funded by the Canadian International Development Agency.<\/p>\n
To assist Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama to negotiate trade agreements with Canada, CTPL has provided training to more than 300 trade officials. CTPL\u2019s trade policy and trade law experts collaborate with local officials on multi- and bilateral trade issues, and long-term plans to build institutional capacity in customs administration, trade facilitation, agricultural trade, food safety, animal and plant health measures, and environmental standards.<\/p>\n
\u201cCTPL is helping to ensure the full participation of the Central American countries in the international trading system,\u201d says Rouke. \u201cThe countries arrive at better trade agreements because they are developing everything they need to participate fully.\u201d<\/p>\n
The trade readiness program also includes a six-week certificate program in Trade Policy and Commercial Diplomacy at Carleton. CTPL is making arrangements for the final group of Central American participants to study in Ottawa this summer before the project wraps up in December.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re also working on setting up a Spanish-language version of the certificate in Central America,\u201d says Rourke. Not only would such a certificate build capacity within the host country, it would make CTPL a better think tank. \u201cIncreasing our Spanish-language capability is part of ensuring CTPL continues to do trade policy better than anyone else,\u201d said Rourke. \u201cHow can CTPL work better with organizations in other countries in order to do better trade policy and law research and training here in Canada?\u201d<\/p>\n
In the meantime, CTPL is busy with the logistics of the Central Americans\u2019, visit to Ottawa, wrapping up the Trade Readiness Technical Assistance Project and assessing remaining needs.<\/p>\n
Although it\u2019s difficult to measure knowledge transfer, the quality of trade negotiations and diplomacy \u2014 and the kind of agreements the six countries are achieving \u2014 are signals that CTPL has helped its Central American collaborators improve their place in international trade.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
Fast fact…<\/p>\n
The non-governmental, non-profit Centre for Trade Policy and Law invests its surplus revenue in research programs, seminars and training programs on campus. CTPL also provides annual research assistantships to graduate students in Carleton\u2019s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs and in the University of Ottawa\u2019s law program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Posted May. 25\/06 We\u2019ve all been in a situation where we agreed to something before we considered all the angles or asked the right questions. For most of us, that means we were running a school bake sale or leasing a car with a few extras. For trade agreement negotiators, the situation has considerably higher […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":1114,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"yoast_head":"\n