Trade challenges.

• Author: Conaway, Janelle
• Position: OAS - Brief Article

AS NEGOTIATIONS MOVE forward on global and regional trade agreements, small countries with limited resources face particular constraints and require effective training to participate fully in the process, the director general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Mike Moore, said during a recent seminar at the OAS.

Recognizing that "grave injustices" exist in the trading system today, Moore said countries must work together to ensure that they have the capacity to negotiate strong agreements.

"We can't afford to lose a moment in this process," he said. Moore said a training course that the OAS Trade Unit and Georgetown University have been conducting in partnership with the WTO serves as a model for similar courses in other parts of the world, particularly Africa and Asia.

In his remarks, Secretary General Cesar Gaviria noted that the training course has already graduated more than two hundred government officials from thirty-two countries participating in the process to create the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).

The seminar focused on...