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Training in Commercial Diplomacy – An Emerging Focus for Development Assistance Programs. Introduction
The importance of international trade and investment to the achievement of economic development objectives has increased the need for professionals skilled in trade policy development and negotiation, a field that has come to be referred to as commercial diplomacy. There is a severe shortage of such professionals in developing countries.
Developing countries need trained
professionals in trade in order to take full advantage of the
opportunities offered by international trade and investment, and the
globalization of the world economy.
Training in this new profession is needed for officials
responsible for the international economic policies of their countries,
executives responsible for managing relations with foreign governments,
and all other key stakeholders with a commercial or policy stake in
international trade and investment.
They have to become familiar with the rules, institutional
processes and standards that apply to global economic activity.
They have to acquire the skills necessary for the development of
effective policies and negotiating strategies for their countries.
They also have to be able to develop effective strategies for the
adoption of global standards with respect to the products and services
they export, with respect to the infrastructure services they can make
available to foreign investors, and with respect to the regulations that
govern domestic economic activity. The international trade community has increasingly recognized the importance of institutional capacity building and training in the trade area. It is now one of the key issues on the agenda of the World Trade Organization. The heads of government of the G-8 countries – the United States, Canada, Japan, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy and Russia, at their recent meeting in Okinawa stated in their communiqué that “in view of the critical importance of trade for the development of developing countries, trade-related capacity building should be substantially expanded.” The shortage of trained
trade professionals and the lack of training facilities for training
such professionals is undoubtedly one of the factors that explains the
tremendous gap in perceptions between developing and developed countries
of the extent to which world trade rules support and facilitate the
economic interests of developing countries. While developed countries
feel they have gone much further than developing countries in opening
their economies to international competition and in binding their
national policies to global rules, developing countries point to their
much smaller share of global markets and investments as proof that the
system is biased against them.
Most international trade organizations
and many national economic assistance agencies have developed training
programs to fill the gap in trained trade professionals. Typically such
programs consist of short-term workshops held in developing countries or
training programs of one week to three months held in Geneva, Vienna or
Washington. These programs,
however, have several shortcomings. They don’t have sufficient
capacity to reach the full range of officials, managers and other
professionals with responsibility for international economic policies or
with a key stake in such policies. They don’t create a large enough
pool of trained professionals so key officials who move on can be
replaced with trained trade experts. They don’t provide a sustained
training effort over a sufficient period of time to develop real
professional competence. They do not provide training materials that
would help graduates to retain and deepen what they have learned.
They fail to provide a sufficient local context to the training
provided. What
is required is the development of a network of both regional and
national training centers that can reach the full range of practicing
professionals with responsibilities and a stake in international trade
and investment. Such training centers should be largely staffed by local
experts and only supplemented by foreign experts. They should have
access to generic training materials reflecting global best practices.
They should also have the means to develop materials customized
for the particular trade interests, laws, institutions, cultural values
and practices of the regions or countries involved. AID
can help developing countries take better advantage of the opportunities
offered by global markets by supporting the establishment of sustainable
training programs in commercial diplomacy.
AID already has a number of programs that currently offer
training and technical assistance in the trade area.
Through the CLDP program, AID supports technical assistance to
developing countries in the process of seeking accession to the WTO.
Other programs offer technical assistance and training workshops to
countries pursuing regional economic integration objectives. These
programs have been useful, but they are not adequate to achieve the
sustainable institutional training capacity that developing countries
need. They could easily be
adapted, however, to support a more comprehensive effort to establish a
sustainable local training capacity. Several initiatives for the establishment of both national and regional training centers are under consideration, including the establishment of a training institute in Sri Lanka, the establishment of a regional training program in East Africa under the aegis of the Intergovernmental Authority for Development (IGAD), and a regional training center in Bangkok, Thailand. The head of the Diplomatic Institute in Egypt has indicated that he intends to add a trade department to the Institute, and that he would like to include a segment on commercial diplomacy to the training given all incoming Egyptian diplomats. If implemented, these programs could serve as models for programs elsewhere, The proposal for the establishment of the Sri Lanka Commercial Diplomacy Institute, which was endorsed by the Sri Lanka Minister for Internal and External Commerce and Food is attached. His department is now preparing a cabinet memorandum and draft legislation. Another attachment describes a proposal for an Egyptian Resource Center for Commercial Diplomacy Training. The
Challenge
Training in what is now referred to as
Commercial Diplomacy is a relatively recent development. Training
in the practical aspects of trade and trade negotiations was never
developed as a recognized area of professional training in universities.
Traditionally, trade policy professionals learned how to make or
influence trade policy or how to negotiate trade agreements on the job.
The first comprehensive graduate program leading to a Masters of Arts in
Commercial Diplomacy (MACD) was developed in 1995 at the Monterey
Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California.
A few other graduate schools have added individual courses on
trade policy or negotiations.
Since not even the developed countries
have developed a comprehensive system for professional training in
commercial diplomacy, providing effective training for developing
countries is that much more of a challenge.
There is not a ready field of experienced instructors in this
area. Moreover, virtually
no training manuals, textbooks
or other training aids have been developed in this field.
These gaps have not been filled by the international
organizations or national development agencies offering seminars,
workshops or short courses in this area. Typically, courses in trade
policy development and negotiation offered by such organizations are
developed around lecture notes prepared by individual experts hired to
lecture on particular topics. There are thus few generic training
materials in the field, much less training material customized to
regional and national circumstances. If efforts to develop ongoing programs in
this area are to succeed, world class training materials – including
teacher’s manuals, text books, case studies, and other instructional
materials - will have to be developed with the same level of
professionalism as has been achieved in professional training for
business management or public administration. The
key international institutions that provide training in trade policy and
negotiations have recognized the need for training materials and
distance learning approaches, but they have made little headway to date.
The WTO is working on modules covering WTO rules and agreements.
UNCTAD is seeking to develop customized modules for on particular
negotiating topics for a few countries. The World Bank is working on a
distance-learning program covering key trade policy issues. The establishment of an effective network of commercial diplomacy training centers in developing countries will require a comprehensive effort to train local instructors, to establish distance learning programs, and to develop both generic training materials reflecting global best practices and supplementary training materials customized to the different commercial interests, institutions, practices, and cultures of individual regions and countries. Establishment
of a Network of Regional and National Training Programs In
order to equip developing countries to effectively participate in the
global training system, it is not enough to organize a few seminars,
workshops, or short courses staffed by experts from the developed world.
Developing countries have to be given the means to develop sustainable
indigenous training programs that can provide training in commercial
diplomacy to everyone who is involved or has a major stake in the
development of trade policy and the conduct of international trade
negotiations. This calls for the development of a network of both
regional and national training centers staffed by local experts. They
should be trained to provide the kind of hands-on training that is
required in this field. They should have access to generic training
materials reflecting global best practices.
They should also have the means to develop materials customized
for the particular trade interests, laws, institutions, cultural values
and practices of the regions or countries involved.
Foreign experts can usefully supplement local instructors, but
should not provide the core of such instruction. Instructors
for training in commercial diplomacy could come from practitioners in
both the government and the private sector that are found in every
capital, as well as from university faculty members who have had some
experience in working with international organizations and or their own
government on trade issues. Another
source of local instructors could be found in the foreign embassies of
countries with well-developed expertise in this area. The bulk of such
instructors could serve as adjunct faculty. The permanent staff required
to run such a program could be relatively modest, In some cases one full
time instructor might be enough to teach core courses and to engage
adjunct faculty. The key to
making such a low budget approach work would be the development of a kit
of course outlines, teaching materials, distance learning resources, and
teachers manuals, combined with programs to train the trainers.
An initial set of training materials is available from The Institute for Trade & Commercial Diplomacy web site, commercialdiplomacy.org. A
training the trainer program could usefully designed around the model
kit for the establishment of a commercial diplomacy training program.
Such training the trainer programs could be establish in key regions of
the world to serve the needs of countries in the region. Pilot projects
currently under consideration in Sri Lanka, Thailand and East Africa
could serve both as demonstration programs and as regional centers for
training the trainers for neighboring countries. Promising individuals might be sponsored by programs like the
Fulbright program to attend programs like the graduate program in
commercial diplomacy at the Monterey Institute for International
Studies. The Content of a Comprehensive Commercial Diplomacy Training Program
A comprehensive training program in
commercial diplomacy calls for courses in many different disciplines –
economics, business, politics, law, media and public relations,
international relations, negotiation and dispute settlement, area
studies, foreign languages and culture.
An ideal program would be structured as a sequence of four
distinct stages of instruction -- theory, institutions, techniques and
skills, and integration -- which are described in more detail below.
Such a sequence provides a natural progression in the learning process.
Students’ knowledge of trade becomes deeper, and not just broader, as
they progress through the program. The
four stages of the learning process are:
Training
Material Required for Effective Training in Commercial Diplomacy
Implementation
of an effective training program in commercial diplomacy requires the
development of a variety of training materials. It requires the development of instructional modules,
teacher’s manuals and eventually textbooks for many of the courses
listed above that are not part of the standard curriculum of university
programs in economics, politics, law or public relations. It also
requires the development of case studies, negotiating simulations and
guides to the preparation of effective operational documents such as
briefing memoranda, strategy papers, negotiating instructions, white
papers, press releases and other public advocacy documents.
The
case study approach, like that used in Harvard's Executive Training
programs, is effective in teaching the operational aspects of commercial
diplomacy. Trade case studies are built around historically important or
particularly interesting trade problems and demonstrate how they were
addressed through advocacy programs, legislation, negotiations or
dispute settlement. They
provide insights into the political and economic strategies that were
employed by industry advocates, politicians and government officials.
Furthermore, they give both students and professionals a way to
learn from past successes and mistakes. Case studies afford the critical
opportunity to ask of past trade negotiations what went well, what
didn't, and what could be improved? Simulations
provide an opportunity for students to practice negotiation, mediation,
dispute settlement and public advocacy skills while addressing real
world issues in commercial diplomacy. Unlike case studies, which are
historical, the simulations are drawn from real-world situations on
current outstanding issues. Simulations provide a nuts-and-bolts
perspective that is an excellent way to train trade professionals.
Simulations teach students how to integrate material from
different areas of knowledge such as business, economics, politics, law,
culture, public policy and science; how to simplify and focus complex
issues to the priority issues; and how to make decisions in the face of
imperfect information and the time pressures typical in the real world.
Simulations teach not only the art of negotiation, dispute settlement
and public advocacy, but also how to use research to pull together
information relevant to these processes. Development of a Distance
Learning Network
Distance learning resources should be
an important component of any comprehensive effort to help developing
countries to build an institutional training capacity in commercial
diplomacy. Several such
initiatives have been launched, and in combination could provide an
important foundation for the development of an effective network of
distance learning resources.
The World Bank’s Global Distance
Learning Network utilizes World Bank facilities around the world to
deliver instructional materials in areas covered by World Bank programs.
Instructional material is derived from courses developed by the World
Bank Institute. The World Bank is also working
with partners in other divisions of the Bank and outside organizations
to develop additional courses. Development of instructional
material in commercial diplomacy is still at an early stage of
development. The World Bank has an important base to draw on, however,
since it has organized many workshops and seminars on international
trade in the past, and runs a course o international trade for officials
from the transition economies in Vienna.
Another initiative in this area has
been organized by the International Training Center of the State
University of California at San Diego (SUCSD), which broadcasts monthly
programs to over 150 sites in Latin America. These broadcasts have included an annual live broadcast on
different aspects of commercial diplomacy. A third distance learning resource is provided by The Institute for Trade & Commercial Diplomacy’s web site, commercialdiplomacy.org, which makes training materials in commercial diplomacy available on line. It includes a model structure for training in this area, course outlines, instructional modules, case studies, simulations of negotiations and dispute settlement, sample documents, and a guide to other resources available over the Internet. International
Coordination In
order to make real head way in the development of an effective approach
to training in commercial diplomacy, it would be desirable to coordinate
the efforts of the various international trade agencies, multilateral
development banks, national economic development assistance agencies and
private institutions currently engaged in developing programs and
training materials in this area. A possible initiative would be to organize a weekend seminar in Geneva. The ITC could organize such a workshop as part of its leadership responsibility under the JITAP Program, the Joint Integrated Technical Assistance Program, which is designed to help African country partners to benefit from the new Multilateral Trading System. The workshop would bring together the ITC, UNCTAD, the WTO and private institutions like The Institute for Trade & Commercial Diplomacy, which is engaged in developing training materials for commercial diplomacy. Such a meeting could review currently available training material from the point of view of their pedagogical effectiveness and assessed needs, identify major gaps in coverage, and discuss the steps that might be taken to help expand the coverage and to fill the gaps. The
proposed workshop would be organized around an initial set of
presentations by the various international organizations and private
educational institutions with programs in the area.
The presentations would cover the training materials each
organization has developed, the educational philosophy underlying these
materials, how these materials have been used, and current plans for the
development of additional materials. The second part of the workshop
would be devoted to a needs assessment and the development of an
“ideal” curriculum and set of supporting training materials.
A third part of the workshop would
focus on a review of current training programs in developing countries,
and on current and potential initiatives to create a sustainable local
institutional training capacity in the developing countries. This
discussion could be organized around a review of current initiatives by
the various organizations and an evaluation of past successes and
failures in establishing locally sustainable training institutions in
the area. The
final session of the workshop would be devoted to a discussion of
options for expanding the resources available for the development of
training materials in the area, and for the establishment of locally
sustainable training programs. Conclusion
In order to train a generation of effective trade policy makers and negotiators in developing countries, it will be necessary to establish a network of training programs in commercial diplomacy in key capitals and regional centers. AID could play a key catalytic role in such an effort
.Model
Curriculum Analytical
Tools Policy
Analysis Laws
and Institutions WTO
Rules and Institutions Commercial
Diplomacy Skills Negotiations Issues Tariffs
& Quotas
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