Jakarta, 17 February 2010

ASEAN Secretariat Holds WTO Workshop
ASEAN Secretariat, 17 February 2010

The ASEAN Secretariat, with the support of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the South East Asia Trade Policy Training Network (SEATRANET), is holding a workshop entitled “Introduction to Trade Policy and the WTO”.  To be held until 19 February, the workshop was formally opened by H.E. Mackenzie Clugston, Canadian Ambassador to ASEAN, the Republic of Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of Timor Leste, and H.E. Pushpanathan Sundram, Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for ASEAN Economic Community.

The workshop marks the first collaboration between the ASEAN Secretariat and Canada in the area of trade and economic cooperation.

“This workshop is just one example of how CIDA is working with its regional partners to promote sustainable economic prosperity in the Asia-Pacific Region through trade and investment liberalisation and facilitation,” said Ambassador Clugston in his opening remarks.

This activity is a flagship project to highlight ASEAN-Canada economic relations as well as to convey ASEAN's continued support to the Doha Development Agenda, said Mr Pushpanathan in his remarks at the opening ceremony. “It will certainly enhance the ASEAN Secretariat’s capacity to help ASEAN become the ‘hub’ of economic integration activities in the East Asian region and act as a platform for future trade-related technical assistance and capacity-building activities,” he continued.

“The ASEAN Secretariat looks forward to future cooperation activities with the Government of Canada to help strengthen overall ASEAN-Canada dialogue relations,” added Mr Pushpanathan.

The workshop aims at increasing the understanding of how trade policy is formulated in a given economy and how the ASEAN Economic Community is related to the working of the global trading system under the World Trade Organization (WTO). The programme offers a deeper understanding of the WTO, insights on current and future negotiating issues in international trade and a sustained focus on particular concerns of developing countries in the process.

With the challenges of competition arising from globalisation and the rise of emerging economies, the workshop represents a capacity building effort to better understand the areas of trade policy formulation and trade negotiations. Having a common understanding will make for more effective communications within ASEAN countries in furthering the plans toward establishing the ASEAN Economic Community by 2015 as well as strengthening policy coordination.

Mr Mario Koetin, Director of SEATRANET, meanwhile, stated that as a network of international trade policy training institutions in the ASEAN region, SEATRANET has combined academic researchers, and past as well as present international trade negotiators into one faculty network that is capable of delivering capacity building that has the region’s outlook and best interests at heart.

The three-day workshop, hosted at the ASEAN Secretariat, has attracted participants from the Committee of Permanent Representatives to ASEAN, the ASEAN-Business Advisory Council, as well as the ASEAN Secretariat.

For Ambassador Clugston’s remarks, please click here.
For Mr Pushpanathan’s remarks, please click here.