Capacity Building Needs for Trade, Environment and Development Rene Vossenaar, UNCTAD

1. AOSIS Workshop on Trade, Sustainable Development and Small Island Developing States Jamaica, 12 - 15 December, 2001 Capacity Building Needs for Trade, Environment and Development Rene Vossenaar, UNCTAD

2. This presentation • Existing UNCTAD support to SIDS • Direct support to SIDS as a group • Policy analysis on issues relevant to SIDS • UNCTAD Post-Doha Technical Assistance and Capacity building programme • Capacity building on Trade and Environment • UNEP-UNCTAD Capacacity Building Task Force on Trade, Environment and Development

3. Existing UNCTAD support • Support to the Committee for Development Policy in the 2000 review of the list of LDCs, with particular reference to the use of vulnerability among the criteria to be considered in potential graduation cases • Preparation to vulnerability profiles of Cape Verde, Maldives, Samoa and Vanuatu • Subst. support to the Commonwealth secretariat / World Bank Joint Task Force on Small States • County-level preparations for 10 LDC SIDS for LDC-III • Assistance to SIDS in preparing for negotiations on agriculture in the WTO(UNCTAD X PoA, par 133)

4. SIDS: ISSUES OF VULNERABILITY AND NEW ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES • Vulnerability to external shocks • Structural handicaps • SIDS casaes of graduation of LDCs • Economic specialization • Multilateral trade liberalization • Regional intergration (Pacific and Caribbean) • Trade and environment • Foreign Direct Investmnet (FDI) in SIDS • SIDS and the music industry • Information technology to alleviate handicaps • SIDS and the APC-EU relations

5. UNCTAD post-Doha programme on technical cooperation and capacity building • Assistance for capacity building directly related to trade negotiations and processes • Assistance for capacity building in overall negotiating areas • ACP • UN Conference on Financing for Development • WSSD • Supply side capacities • Support for analytical work in the post-Doha period • e.g. Working Group on Trade and Transfer of Tewchnology

6. UNCTAD post-Doha programme: WTO • Negotiating mandates • 19 key issues, including TRIPS, trade and environment, agriculture • Implementation issues • Decision on implementataion-related by Members • Compliation of outstanding implementation issues raised by members that will be considered by the relevant WTO bodies as a matter of priority on order to report to the Trade Negotoations Committee by the end of 2002 for “appropriate action”

7. Capacity Building on Trade and Environment • UNCTAD X Plan of Action: Identifying specific capacity-building needs of developing countries and promoting a broad programme of capacity-building on trade, environment and development. • Doha Ministerial Declaration: recognizes the importance of technical assistance and capacity building in the field of trade and environment to developing countries, in particular the LDCs.

8. UNEP-UNCTAD Capacity Building Task Force on Trade, Environment and Development (CBTF) • Overall programme • Training • Thematic studies • Country studies • Policy dialogues • Networking • Special programme for LDCs

9. Special programme for LDCs • Anglophone LDCs • Francophone LDCs • Lusophone LDCs • South Pacific

10. CBTF • Funding: UK, Norway, Germany, US, Sweden, European Commission • Over 40 proposals, 7 project being implemented • Regional Policy Dialogue (Mexico) • Integrated assessments (Lebanon, Indonesia) • Environmentally sound management of used lead acid batteries in Central America and the Caribbean • Three LDC projects • Training

11. Workshop on trading opportunities and market access for organic agricultural products,Brussels, 21 and 22 Feb 2002 Organic products from certain SIDS have been imported into the European Union. These are: Cape Verde, Comoros, Cuba Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Mauritius, Papua New Guinea, Seychelles, Tonga and Vanuatu

12. ISSUES • Market access. Exploring policies to strengthen capacities to meet health and environmental requirements in international markets. • Niche markets. Supporting SIDS efforts to derive benefits from trading opportunities for environmentally preferable products EPPs. • Regional integration. Trade, environment and development issues relevant in the context of regional integration efforts. • Environmentally sound technology (EST). Exploring policies to promote access to and transfer of ESTs to SIDS, and their adaptation to local conditions.

13. ISSUES • Multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs). Assisting SIDS in using specific enabling measures under MEAs. • Traditional knowledge (TK). Creating awareness of the role of TK in the development process, exploring commercialization of TK-based products and exchanging national experiences in protecting and using TK. • Exports of domestically prohibited goods.

14. ISSUES • Trade Liberalisation, Environment and Sustainable Development. Sector studies and strategies to address economic, social and environmental impacts of trade policies • Sustainable tourism. Enhancing the potential contribution of sustainable tourism to economic diversification and sustainable development of SIDS.

15. Training • Cuba • Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia • Africa • Module 1: Trade, environment and sustainable development – the international context • Module 2: Trade and environment and the multilateral trading system • Module 3: Environmental requirements and market access • Module 4: Environmentally preferable products (EPPs)

16. Training • Module 5: Multilateral environmental agreements • Module 6: International standards for environmental management systems, particularly iso 14001 • Module 7: Traditional knowledge, trade and development • Module 8: Trade liberalization and the environment