Aid for Trade: Supporting the Use of Standards

As a complementary activity to the WTO’s Doha Round of trade negotiations, the Sixth Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong, China, in 2005 mandated that technical assistance and capacity-building activities needed to be expanded so that developing countries could take better advantage of the opportunities opened up by trade liberalization.With traditional barriers to trade such as tariffs and quotas being progressively eliminated, the ability to comply with technical regulations and use international standards has emerged as a key factor for success in integrating into international markets. This paper focuses on the potential of providing assistance to Governments and businesses for the setting of and complying with product standards as part of the AId for Trade initiative.Aid for Trade, transition economies, product standards

FREE TRADE BETWEEN SOUTH AFRICA AND THE EUROPEAN UNION

This study summarizes the findings of the technical assistance provided jointly by UNCTAD and the Trade and Industrial Policy Secretariat (TIPS) to the Department of Trade and Industry of South Africa during its negotiations with the European Union for a Free Trade Area (FTA) Agreement. The technical assistance programme involved preparing and keeping up to date a complete data set of South African-European Union trade and tariffs as well as the negotiating proposals in digital format at the tariff line level. This effort was completed by the customization of the SMART (Software on Market Analysis and Restrictions on Trade) simulation model for the specific purpose of the negotiations. This allowed for the simulation of the impact of the proposed FTA Agreement on bilateral trade flows as well as on trade with other commercial partners.

Etude de cas

National audience[No abstract