Building Capacity to Trade: A Road Map for Development Partners - Insights from Africa and the Caribbean

Strengthening the capacities of developing countries in the area of international trade is of crucial importance, both for the countries themselves and for their partners, in view of a number of international trade negotiations, both ongoing and forthcoming. There is the prospect of a new multilateral Trade Round in Doha in November 2001 and negotiations on a new trade regime between the ACP countries and the European Union are planned to start in September 2002. There is a real risk that many ACP countries and regions will come to the negotiating table ill-prepared. Under the new Cotonou Partnership Agreement, a special facility is to be set up to assist ACP countries in this respect. However, the Agreement provides little guidance as to how trade-related capacities can best be developed and strengthened. This paper aims to provide a road map for trade capacity development and the trade policy process, as well as some practical lessons of experience with trade capacity development (TCD).