Trade Agreements

By Ralf Peters and Divya Prabhakar, UNCTAD

UNCTAD senior management and government representatives call for restraint and dialogue in an attempt to resolve the crisis facing the multilateral trading system.

In Nairobi, senior trade officials and experts shared their experience and lessons learnt in national trade policy formulation and implementation supported by UNCTAD's trade policy frameworks

At the request of the Government of Zambia, UNCTAD provided assistance in the review and reformulation of its trade policy framework. The final report has now been published.

UNCTAD has been assisting Botswana to formulate a national trade policy framework, in order to make full use of the transformative power of trade for development. The document was adopted by the Government and stakeholders at a workshop in Gaborone on 16 February 2016.

​Twenty representatives of the government, the private sector and academia in Algeria gathered at a consultative workshop organized by UNCTAD and the Algerian government in the capital Algiers on 16–17 September to form a new Trade Policy Framework for the country.

As part of a broader project to assist the Dominican Republic to formulate its trade strategy for 2016-2020, UNCTAD is assisting the Government in the preparation of a comprehensive trade policy framework.

Overdependence on the exports of minerals has prompted Namibia to rethink its growth and export strategy, and a new approach was explored during an UNCTAD-backed workshop in Windhoek, Namibia on 28-29 April 2015.

At the request of the Government of Tunisia, UNCTAD has studied the pros and cons of the country becoming party to the Information Technology Agreement of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Zambia's trade is dominated by the export of a primary commodity - copper - so the Government is looking at ways to diversify sources of revenue, add value to exports and build a resilient economy for its citizens.