A travers une approche interdisciplinaire, JEICP offre un appui pratique, opportun et indépendant sur les questions du commerce que rencontrent les pays en développement.

The Geneva Trade and Development Symposium (GTDS)
November 30 - December 2 2009

Trade and Investment in Services: The Way Forward, 2 December 2009 (at the Geneva Trade and Development Symposium, November 30 - December 2 2009)

This session of the Geneva Trade and Development Symposium (GTDS) focused on the current challenges in services negotiations, including for developing countries, and explored options for imparting forward movement to them.

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Advancing Services Sector Development and Reforms in Nigeria, Abuja, Nigeria
10-12 Novembre 2009

West Africa has confirmed its commitment to negotiating a comprehensive trade agreement (Economic Partnership Agreement) with the European Union. In the first instance, an agreement on goods is envisaged, with negotiations on services scheduled to commence in early 2010. Within the region, countries such as Nigeria recognise the potential opportunities presented by an agreement on trade in services. At the same time, there is acknowledgement that services reforms also present possible risks to stakeholders.  To promote pro-poor outcomes, there is need for various analytical and consultative inputs.

With a view to developing a West African offer and request in the EPA negotiations, efforts to date have focussed on building consensus around the issues raised by trade in services reforms, as well as identifying specific services sectors of interest on which further analytical work could be based.

The primary objective of this workshop is to build on previous efforts, in particular the Accra Road Map, to help advance the development of a proactive agenda on services preparations in Nigeria. By putting in place a sound methodology for the conducting of regulatory audits, and a process on which to undertake them, it would lay the essential groundwork for the preparation of services offers and help situate Nigeria as a leader in the region for advancing similar preparations at the regional level in the future.

A secondary aim of the workshop is to help mobilise a constituency on services reforms, including members of the private sector to establish a services coalition to help pursue their interests in sector development and negotiations.  This component would create awareness about the role of services coalitions in pursuing services reforms and negotiations, as well as promote information and knowledge sharing amongst stakeholders.

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Le rôle des négociations commerciales et des groupements de fournisseurs de services en Côte d'Ivoire
4-6 November 2009

Les services représentent le secteur le plus dynamique du commerce international. Ils offrent des possibilités importantes en termes d'accroissement des exportations et des importations. Ils visent ainsi à renforcer la compétitivité, stimuler le développement économique et réduire la pauvreté. En plus, les reformes dans le secteur des services et les négociations en cours, restent naturellement controversées en raison de leur caractère à dévoiler les différentes variétés de risques que courent les parties prenantes les plus vulnérables.

En Côte d'Ivoire, le commerce des services est le secteur le plus important dans l'économie, contribuant pour plus de 50% au PIB. En outre, les principaux services d'infrastructures (télécommunications, transports, énergie, services financiers) sous tendent également toutes les autres activités économiques du pays et donc, leur efficacité relative (ou leur inefficacité) peut avoir d'importantes retombées dans l'économie. En effet, ils peuvent avoir une incidence déterminante sur les efforts de réduction de la pauvreté. Le pays fait face toutefois à des défis importants dans le renforcement de ses capacités d'offre et dans l’attraction  des investisseurs des services essentiels pour l'économie nationale.

En se basant sur les activités antérieures soutenues par JEICP, plus récemment en août 2009, cet atelier vise donc à examiner les résultats préliminaires des différents audits réglementaires, en vue d'aider les intervenants à acquérir une meilleure compréhension de l'état du secteur des services et des règlements connexes en Côte D'Ivoire. Cela devrait tirer son origine dans l'articulation des intérêts des services offensifs et défensifs. En même temps, l'atelier permettra de répondre au fait que malgré l'existence de diverses associations professionnelles dans le pays, leur rôle dans le processus institutionnel pour faire avancer les réformes des services et des négociations est marginal. Ainsi, un objectif parallèle de l'atelier est d'aider à sensibiliser sur le rôle des groupements de fournisseurs de services dans la poursuite des réformes des services et des négociations, ainsi que de promouvoir l'information et le partage des connaissances.

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Building Consensus on Services Reforms and Negotiations: the Private Sector and the Role of Services Coalitions
2-3 October 2009

Services industry practitioners and representatives from across East Africa attended a meeting organized by the East African Business Council (EABC) and International Lawyers and Economists Against Poverty (ILEAP) in Kampala Uganda on 2nd and 3rd of October 2009. The objective was to promote discussion on ways to build services coalitions to confront challenges in the sector and help unlock the region’s economic potential.

The services industry in EAC – which includes such areas a finance, ICT, tourism, education, legal, accounting and other professional services – is faced with a number of constraints. These include limited supply capacity, inadequate laws and regulations, an absence of national policies on trade in services, and restrictive international trade barriers (amongst others). The result has been an inability for EAC firms to translate services market opportunities into tangible commercial benefits and ultimately poverty alleviation.

As a result, participants at the meeting participated in discussions on the role of services coalitions in pursuing services reforms and engaging in trade negotiations, promoting information and knowledge sharing amongst stakeholders and promoting consensus on services coalitions (or similar mechanism) that can best serve the needs of EAC services operators.

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Formation of a Coalition of Service Industries in Uganda
29-30 September 2009

In September 2009, the Ugandan Ministry of Tourism, Trade and Industry (MTTI) and the Private Sector Foundation of Uganda (PSFU), in collaboration with International Lawyers and Economists Against Poverty (ILEAP) organized a meeting on services – as the most dynamic area of international trade - aimed together enhancing competitiveness, stimulating economic development and reducing poverty. At the same time services reforms and negotiations remain understandably contentious due to their potential to expose vulnerable stakeholders to a variety of risks.

Despite the acknowledged role such coalitions can and should play in harnessing services for development, their existence in Africa is virtually non‐existent (including in East Africa). As such, the broader objective of this workshop is to help create awareness about the role of services coalitions in pursuing services reforms and negotiations, as well as to promote information and knowledge sharing amongst stakeholders of national/regional experiences with services associations. Building consensus for such coalitions is thus a key expected outcome. By helping to elaborate on how such coalitions can be properly situated within the existing institutional landscape, the ultimate aim is to help catalyze the formation of Uganda services coalition.

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