ENHANCING ASEAN FTA NEGOTIATING CAPACITY PROGRAMME

Transcription

1 ENHANCING ASEAN FTA NEGOTIATING CAPACITY PROGRAMME REGIONAL TRADE CAPACITY-BUILDING WORKSHOP 1: INTRODUCTION EU AND ASEAN TRADE POLICY NEW TRADE ISSUES STAKEHOLDER CONSULTATIONS BILATERAL FTA NEGOTIATIONS SIMULATIONS SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA, JANUARY 2012 Introduction to the Programme The Enhancing ASEAN FTA Negotiating Capacity Programme is a partnership between the European Union (EU) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to support ASEAN economic integration and its path to a community by 2015 and strengthen the capacity of ASEAN Member States to conduct FTA trade negotiations. This project, which began on 2 February 2011 with an Inception period that concluded with the approval of the Overall and first Annual Working Plans by the Programme Steering Committee (PSC) on 3 October 2011, runs until 1 August The PSC supervises the Programme, approves all plans and reports; and it endorsed the initiation of its formal operations in October The Programme s day-to-day execution is headed by a Team Leader assisted by an Office Administrator. Short-term experts are recruited to implement training and research workshops, awareness-raising and socialisation seminars and other activities. The Programme s overall objective is to support ASEAN integration by contributing to the implementation of the Vientiane Action Plan, especially the trade related sectors of the ASEAN Economic Community with a view to the Single Market and Production Base objective set by 2015, and to contribute to the improvement to the business environment, economic growth, sustainable development and greater prosperity for ASEAN. Its purpose is to facilitate the participation of ASEAN countries in the FTA negotiating processes, in particular with the EU, on a properly informed basis, through the strengthening of the technical expertise and capacity of ASEAN negotiators while raising ASEAN public awareness where needed. The Enhancing ASEAN FTA Negotiating Capacity Programme is designed to provide high-quality training, cutting-edge research and analysis and bilateral FTA negotiations simulations for government and private sector representatives of the ASEAN Member States and ASEAN Secretariat officials. It provides user-friendly tools for trade analysis and negotiations and key information on next generation regional agreements covering a broad spectrum of trade and investment issues and addressing traditional and non-traditional issues and newer 21st century challenges. In addition, it will conduct awareness-raising seminars on a wide range of international trade, investment, globalisation and related political economy and socio-economic issues, which will be opened to the public, private 1

2 and civil society sectors. Issues were chosen to reflect the interests and needs of the ASEAN Member States, as determined by their responses to a needs-identification questionnaire and by interviews with ASEAN Secretariat officials and other stakeholders and donors. Programme workshops and seminars Concept The Programme covers both traditional and non-traditional trade issues that can be categorised as core, new, cross-cutting, and emerging issues. Complementing the substantive trade topics focus will be discussions of process-related issues (ie, preparing for negotiations, post-negotiation trade adjustment, post-ratification trade implementation). Traditional core trade issues to be covered include agriculture, non-agriculture market access, services and intellectual property rights. New trade issues actually dating from the 1995 Singapore WTO Ministerial will be covered: trade facilitation and trade and competition, investment and government procurement. Non-traditional cross-cutting issues to be covered are social, labour, environmental, regulatory and SME issues. Finally, emerging issues that will be covered include trade and investment in innovative products and services, stateowned enterprise competition and export controls and the secure supply of raw materials. These issues are to be addressed through a series of training and research-focused workshops customised for ASEAN Member State officials, private sector representatives that are involved with trade (particularly FTA) negotiations. These will be accompanied by awareness-raising sessions targeting a wider public, private sector and civil society audience. Table 1 presents currently-planned regional trade capacity-building workshops. Table 1: Planned Regional Trade Capacity-Building Workshops, Workshop No. Topics 1 EU and ASEAN trade policy; new trade issues; stakeholder consultations; FTA negotiations simulations 2 Agriculture, SPS, preparing for FTA Negotiations; FTA negotiations simulations; 3 Textiles, Rules of Origin, knowing your own value chain; FTA negotiations simulations 4 Trade in services, investment (commercial presence) and regulatory dialogue; FTA negotiations simulations; 5 GSP, concrete steps to improving market access under preferential schemes; 6 Competitiveness and identifying and confronting market capture; FTA negotiation simulations; 7 European Single Market, identifying the costs and benefits of greater economic integration and adjustment policies; 8 Legal and institutional mechanisms for fostering stronger cooperation; Participants Tentative Dates Tentative Host Tentative Venue January Cambodia Siem Reap March Indonesia Jakarta April Malaysia Kuala Lumpur 4-9 June Singapore Singapore September Vietnam Hanoi October Thailand Bangkok December 2013 Philippines 28 Jan-1 Feb Brunei Darussalam Manila Brunei Darussalam 2

3 The workshop is designed for 34 representatives of the 10 ASEAN MEMBER STATES and two officials from the ASEAN Secretariat. It is proposed that the 10 AMS nominate participants as follows: Each ASEAN-6 Member State: 3 representatives including (i) one senior government (traderelated) official, (ii) one junior trade official, (iii) one private sector representative; Each C-L-M-V country: 4 representatives including (i) one senior government (trade-related) official, (ii) two junior trade officials, (iii) one private sector representative. The idea behind this allocation is to ensure effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability. suggested that: Hence, it is One category of junior-to-mid level trade officials attends all 10 Programme workshops. This requires that their institutions plan from the outset to make them available for all workshops; One category of senior level government officials attends workshops on an ad hoc basis depending on their interests and needs; One category of private sector representatives that are expected to engage in the FTA negotiating or implementing processes attends the workshops. Public outreach: awareness-raising and information dissemination In addition to the training workshops that it presents, the Enhancing ASEAN FTA Negotiating Capacity Programme will conduct awareness-raising and information dissemination seminars to reach out to a greater number of stakeholders and wider audience. It is envisioned that participating ministries and agencies will assist in mobilising representatives of the business community, media, NGOs, trade unions and the like to participate in these important public-outreach activities. Post-workshop study and transfer of knowledge and skills After every workshop, participants will be provided a post-workshop kit presented on electronic media consisting of workshop materials, a syllabus for further reading, reference materials and documents, analytical tools and videos. These essential materials will facilitate continued learning while participants are carrying out their daily activities and transferring newly-learnt knowledge and skills to their colleagues. Through this support, the participants should increasingly gain the capacity to coach others in their ministries and agencies and eventually function as trainers themselves. Workshop 1 briefing paper Background The first workshop is scheduled to take place in Siem Reap, Cambodia on January It covers the disciplines of training, research and negotiations simulations on the topics of EU and ASEAN trade policy, new trade issues, stakeholder consultations and bilateral FTA negotiations. The design and methodology of the workshop are discussed in detail in the Programme s Overall Work Plan (see OWP narrative and Annex 6). Briefly, each of the 10 scheduled workshops and awareness sessions comprise one piece of a larger puzzle of transformative information, knowledge and skills with respect to FTA preparations, negotiations and post-agreement implementation. Simultaneously, they are intended to augment the debate over FTAs and make the issues more transparent, reasoned and evident to stakeholders and a wider audience. Upon completion of these activities, participants will have gained a much greater understanding of FTA strategy, negotiations and implementation processes and, more generally, of EU and ASEAN trade policies and multilateral/regional trade disciplines. The workshop is based on a 4-day, 8 hour/day schedule, consisting of four modules and 17 sessions that are focused on EU and ASEAN trade policy, new trade issues, stakeholder consultations, and simulated bilateral FTA negotiations on new trade issues. The schedule is broken into 45 minute and one hour blocks, though some sessions are composed of several blocks of time. There has been an 3

4 effort to break up the schedule in terms of sessions involving passive learning (lectures and presentations) in contrast to active learning (dialogues, discussions, interactive sessions); and to conduct more difficult sessions in the morning and more lively/interactive sessions in the afternoon. To facilitate participation, the Programme will structure the workshop whereby theoretical training and research are presented in the initial part of the workshop (first two days) and the negotiation simulations will take place thereafter. The first workshop requires four STEs in the Senior 1 category for an estimated total of 48 working days. Detailed information is provided below. The workshop opens on Monday, 16 January, and will close on Thursday, 19 January, with a ceremony and awarding of certificates. Objectives Workshop 1 is designed for ASEAN Member State government officials and private sector representatives who are involved in international/regional trade and negotiations, particularly concerning free trade agreements. It will provide key information about ASEAN, EU and multilateral trade policies; the so-called new trade issues from the ASEAN, EU and multilateral (WTO) perspectives; stakeholder consultations (ie, familiarising stakeholders on FTA political economy issues, the challenges of trade agreement implementation, post-trade agreement adjustment issues, etc.). Negotiations simulation exercises will practically transmit information and tools that permit participants to acquire/internalise basic methodological knowledge and skills of negotiating techniques and familiarise themselves with negotiations preparations, practices and strategies. It is expected that the participants will continue to use these tools and information in their daily work and transmit them to their colleagues after they return to their job. To support these objectives, short-term experts shall adhere to the methodological approaches discussed in Section III and design their presentations and background materials ie, PowerPoint Presentations, papers, documents, reading lists, etc. to underpin workshop strategy. Methodological and pedagogical approaches The workshop adopts innovative methodological techniques and customised pedagogical approaches that are tailored for the needs of the participants and balanced between theoretical knowledge and practical skills. The workshop is based on: presentations-lectures that provide essential background facts and data as well as more advanced information and tools; interactive sessions employing Socratic Q&A techniques and topical dialogues that encourage the internalization of knowledge ; debriefing sessions that identify best practices and routines particularly on decision-making and negotiation dynamics; technical sessions presented by specialists involved in negotiations; research overviews that contextualise the issues, providing their current state-of-play through papers, a literature survey of formal documents, reference materials, analytical guides and tools; negotiation simulation exercises that employ not only traditional techniques but also more innovative techniques based on the Harvard negotiation concept, behavioural economics and game theory; post-workshop reading, documentation and reference materials for on-the-job continuing learning, which also facilitates the transfer of newly-learned knowledge and skills to their colleagues and provides post-workshop sustainability and durability. 4

5 Participants are expected to engage fully in the sessions. Though there will be formal presentations that facilitate passive learning, the participants will learn and interalise more by active participation through Socratic dialogues and topical discussions. Modules, sessions and topics The first module EU and ASEAN trade policies, strategies and negotiations is composed of a brief overview and contextualisation of each party s trade policies, institutional framework, decisionmaking structures/processes and negotiation strategies. Regarding the EU, there will be a brief discussion about its shift in trade policy/strategy (particularly concerning FTAs) in which was refined from 2011 as it looks towards Europe Concerning ASEAN, there will be a discussion about its deepening economic integration processes and pursuit of a Single Market particularly from the enactment of the ASEAN Charter, the pursuit of the ASEAN Economic Community vision by 2015 and implementation of the AEC Blueprint. This module consists of three sessions: Session 1: presentation-lecture and interactive topical discussions that overview and contextualise the above-mentioned topics from the perspective of the EU; Session 2: presentation-lecture and interactive topical discussions that overview and contextualise the above-mentioned topics from the perspective of ASEAN; Session 3: discussions about EU and ASEAN commonalities and contrasts concerning the above-mentioned topics. The second module Introduction to the new trade issues aims at identifying and exploring the individual new trade issues; explaining the rationale behind introducing them into a broadened trade agenda; discussing the different multilateral (WTO), ASEAN and EU perspectives on the issues; and examining why there is such a strong debate over introducing them into the WTO and FTA environments. This module is composed of seven training and research-focused sessions. Session 4: an awareness-raising session, presenting the opportunities and challenges, benefits and costs of introducing new trade issues into a broadened trade agenda that reaches behind the borders; faces political economy pressures from powerful national interests and lobbies; affects sovereign national institutional and regulatory frameworks; and requires significant domestic structural adjustments to implement such changes. The presentation should address the nature and spectrum of the so-called new trade issues, their state of current play and the latest trends and movements in the broader context of their role in expanding the scope of the international trade agenda. Given the likelihood of growing ambition in FTA negotiation agendas, particularly given the standstill of the DDA, what is the likely path of the new trade issues? Are more ambitious trade negotiation agendas likely to include even more encompassing issues such as trade and the role of SOEs, state innovation policies, cross-border data flows, supply chain management and the like? The SEOM are likely to attend this session and therefore it should be conducted interactively and encourage dialogue. Session 5: presentation-lecture and interactive discussions on the multilateral (WTO) perspective on the so-called Singapore or new trade issues trade and competition, investment, government procurement, trade facilitation; Session 6: presentation-lecture and interactive discussions on the ASEAN perspective of the new trade issues; Session 7: presentation-lecture and interactive discussions on the new issues from the EU perspective, with a focus on their treatment in the EU-Korea FTA (the EU s benchmark FTA 5

6 for integrating these issues into a competitive and ambitious new generation of FTAs and a potential model for bilateral FTAs with ASEAN); Session 8: discussions focused on comparing and contrasting multilateral, ASEAN and EU perspectives on and approaches to the new trade issues; Session 9: discussions on research and analysis on new issues: handing out syllabus, reference documents, materials and study aids; discussions about content, self-study and how to use materials after the workshop ends; Session 10: presentation-lecture about research and analysis on new issues: overview of standard and cutting edge R&A; The third module, Negotiation Simulations bilateral FTA negotiations focusing on selected new issues, composed of four sessions, aims to provide information and tools to prepare, conduct and manage simulated negotiations. These include information on principles, strategy, behaviour, dilemmas and traps of negotiations; operational structuring and sequencing negotiations, inter alia. The simulations will be based on traditional and more innovative techniques such as the Harvard negotiation concepts, behavioural and game theory. Session 11: Introduction to negotiations strategy and preparations; Session 12: Negotiation simulations; Session 13: Negotiation simulations wrap-up; Session 14: Debriefing and discussions about negotiations exercise; The fourth module Stakeholders consultation, which is composed of two sessions, aims to highlight the importance of consulting stakeholders for successful negotiations, conclusion and implementation of trade agreements. It will discuss the issue of familiarizing stakeholders on FTA political economy issues, the challenges of trade agreement implementation, post-trade agreement adjustment issues, etc. Session 15: a presentation and longer interactive discussions of stakeholder consultations including the issues of: targets; political economy issues (potential winners and losers, complex system of interests and relative pressure, influence of lobbies); who, what, when and why of the consultations. Session 16: a presentation and longer interactive discussions of stakeholder consultations including the issues of: the importance of stakeholder consultations in the process of implementing trade commitments and the trade adjustment process; correctly identifying and bringing on board the proper mix of stakeholders; consulting prior, during and after negotiations. The final session assesses the workshop. Session 17: Wrap-up discussion: assessment and summary of the workshop; participant feed-back. Speakers/experts In addition to the Team Leader, four short-term experts (STEs) have been selected to speak at the workshop including: STE (ToR)1: Dr. Willem van der Geest Dr Willem van der Geest is a senior trade specialist and recognised leading academic in trade policy issues in Asia. He has over 30 years of international experience in the field, as well as work with leading multilateral trade organisations in Brussels and Geneva. Previously, he completed assignments for numerous international donor agencies including the European Union, United Nations organizations UNDP and UNCTAD and has worked extensively throughout Asia, including 6

7 China, Vietnam, India and Singapore. He has published widely on an array of trade issues, with particular focus on regional integration policy, the WTO, and new trade issues. As Director of an EU think tank in Brussels, Dr van der Geest developed fresh research into the processes of regional integration, especially in the context of EU-China, EU-India and EU-ASEAN relations. He has been the Team Leader of several studies for the European Commission on the implications of economic and political developments in Asia, analysing China s role in the region, Asia s demographic change as well as the rise of India to a sub-regional power, among other issues. He is currently working as a Trade Policy Advisor to the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Armenia, where he is advising the country on preparing to enter into negotiations with the EU to establish a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area. He is responsible for delivering training and awareness-raising workshops as well as technical assistance to facilitate the country s participation in the negotiating processes. STE (ToR) 2: Professor Christopher Dent Professor Christopher Dent is a leading trade economist focusing on East Asian FTAs, with in-depth knowledge of ASEAN trade policy and issues related to FTAs, WTO trade agreements and new trade issues. Dr Dent is currently Professor at the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Leeds and Director at the National Institute of Chinese Studies, and has published widely on political economy of trade with particular reference to Asia. In 2009, he was awarded the Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Foundation Special Prize for his book East Asian Regionalism and has authored and edited numerous books and articles related to regionalism and trade in the Asia Pacific region. Since March 2009, he has been a member of the British Academy s East Asia Panel and has over 15 years experience working on new trade issues, free trade agreements and regional economic integration. Professor Dent frequently speaks at conferences and workshops in both East Asia and other regions across the world including Latin America, Europe and Africa. In 2008, he was a consultant advisor for a report entitled Economic Integration in South East Asia and the Impact on the EU commissioned by the European Commission s Directorate General of Trade. On behalf of the Nike Corporation, he carried out a number of studies on the future of the world trade system to 2020, and currency conflicts between G20 powers. He has advised governments around the world on issues related to trade policy and regionalism, including Britain, Germany, Japan, Chile, the United States and Australia particularly on the implications of free trade agreements for domestic economies. STE (ToR) 3: Mr Yose Rizal Damuri Mr Yose Damuri is an experienced international trade economist with significant knowledge of the multilateral trading system and regional trade arrangements. He has over 15 years of experience working on issues related to the political economy of trade in the Asia Pacific region in particular. He has provided advisory services to the Negotiating Team of the Republic of Indonesia in bilateral trade negotiations with Japan, EFTA and India, as well as for multilateral trade negotiations. Mr Damuri has provided training for officials in Indonesia on a range of issues related to FTA and international trade regimes and has published extensively on these topics. Mr Damuri is currently Senior Researcher at the Department for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta and affiliated with the Centre for Trade and International Integration in Geneva. He has extensive experience in conducting economic research and policy analysis on trade and economic integration. He has provided consultancy services to the ASEAN Economic Forum on Rules of Origin in the Area of Trade in Services and has analysed the impact of WTO Negotiations on trade facilitation in the Asia Pacific for the UN. STE (ToR) 4: Mr Richard Self Mr Richard Self is a vastly-experienced trade negotiator with in-depth of knowledge of bilateral FTA and multilateral trade negotiations. Mr Self was Senior Attaché to the Assistant United States Trade Representative in Geneva for four years, where he was Lead US Negotiator in Geneva for accession 7

8 of 18 countries to the WTO. He was also chief US negotiator for services in the Uruguay Round negotiations of the GATT/WTO, including subsequent negotiations on financial services and maritime services. As an independent consultant, he has provided technical assistance to a range of governments on the international rules governing trade, particularly in services, and new trade issues. He previously conducted a two day workshop for representatives of ASEAN governments and the ASEAN Secretariat on building a legal framework for the services sector in ASEAN countries with an emphasis on negotiation simulation of a request and offer nature and related negotiating dynamics. In Laos in 2004 and 2008, he conducted seminars for officials in preparation for their efforts to accede to the WTO. In Indonesia in 2004, he provided advice and assistance to negotiators and stakeholders about their strategic interest in the WTO in particular trade facilitation issues such as freight and logistics services. 8