Capacity Building on Trade Policy Analysis

October 24 – 25, 2016
IPS Conference Room

A National Workshop on Capacity Building on Trade Policy Analysis organized by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) together with IPS was held at the IPS Conference Room during 24-25 October 2016.  Dr. Rajan Sudesh Ratna, Dr. Mia Mikic and Dr. Arun Jacob of ESCAP’s Trade, Investment and Innovation Division facilitated the training, while IPS Executive Director, Dr. Saman Kelegama also shared Sri Lanka’s experience.

After a brief introduction to current trends in trade policy formation, the session explored theoretical and practical areas associated with trade policy analysis. The programme integrated Sri Lanka specific experiences in terms of developing trade policy and exploring FTAs and RTAs with a view towards on-going negotiations with India, China, and Singapore. The key takeaways included the necessity to harmonize coordination mechanisms between different stakeholders involved with trade policy from the private and public sector, the different negotiating strategies available for small economies such as Sri Lanka, and the importance of evidence-based trade policy formation.

The workshop aimed to enhance the capacity of the participants, which included policy makers, private sector, researchers, and journalists on evaluating the trade policy, which is evidence, based on how to carry out impact assessments on trade agreements.