Box 9: Following and conducting negotiations in developed countries

473 civil servants (260 administrators or professionals and 213 assistants) work at the Directorate-General for Trade of the European Commission[61].

According to their website, more than 200 civil servants work at the Office of the United States Trade Representative[62].

The organizational charts of the EU DG Trade (available at http://ec.europa.eu/trade/about/organisation/index_en.htm) or the Office of the United States Trade Representative (available at http://www.ustr.gov/sites/default/files/orgchart.jpg) shed some light on the sophistication of their respective structures mandated to follow and conduct trade negotiations.

Source: Author

DCs and LDCs do not have the same possibilities to gather information and data, as well as to conduct research and analysis to underpin their negotiating positions, due to their financial and human limitations, and this is unlikely to change in the near future. Therefore, they need to make the best use of the resources available by including in the research and analysis effort all the actors who have a stake in the negotiating process. In particular:

б The diplomats present in Geneva, Brussels or elsewhere should provide the Тraw materialУ: information about the latest discussions, and analytical papers prepared by the international organizationsХ Secretariats or the international research institutes;

б Sectoral ministries should provide the trade data and conduct studies (analysis of their sector or impact studies);

б External consultants andthink tanks, paid by national or international funds, should also provide research and studies;

б An inter-ministerial/inter-institutional committee on trade should be established to involve all the relevant stakeholders in the negotiating process. Such committee would include: (a) public sector (ministries and agencies, policymakers, politicians, parliamentarians); (b) private sector (traders, businesses, farmer/producer organizations), civil society (academics, researchers, consultants, special interest groups/NGOs), and the media.

Research and analysis should essentially focus on:

б Understanding of the texts and agreements already signed, their main principles and philosophical pillars (MFN clause, national treatment, enabling clause, etc.[63]), obligations and rights resulting from each of these agreements;

б Impact assessment of the decisions taken and the modalities already implemented;

б Understanding of the proposals put on the table by the various parties in the current phase of negotiation (tariff formulas, exemption lists, progressive removal of subsidies, work on bound tariffs[64], etc.);

б Impact measurement of these proposals on the national economy. This measurement can be done through impact studies financed nationally or internationally, or through econometric simulations (for tariff negotiations in particular).

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