EU-ASEAN ENHANCING ASEAN FTA NEGOTIATING CAPACITY PROGRAMME

Transcription

1 EU-ASEAN ENHANCING ASEAN FTA NEGOTIATING CAPACITY PROGRAMME SUMMARY REPORT ON REGIONAL TRADE CAPACITY- BUILDING WORKSHOP 5: COMPETITION POLICY AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE; BILATERAL FTA NEGOTIATION SIMULATIONS BANGKOK, THAILAND, OCTOBER 2012 Participants and experts at FTA Programme Regional Trade Capacity-Building Workshop 5, Bangkok, Thailand, October 2012 I. Introduction The fifth Regional Trade Capacity-Building Workshop of the Enhancing ASEAN FTA Negotiating Capacity Programme (henceforth referred to as the FTA Programme) was opened on 15 October in Bangkok, Thailand, by Khun Thitisesh Seshtabutra, Assistant Director General, Department of Trade Negotiations, Ministry of Commerce, Thailand; Mr. Attila Nyitrai, Deputy Head of the European Union Delegation to Thailand; and Dr. Carolyn Gates, Team Leader of the FTA Programme. It was concluded four days later on 18 October with the award of certificates and a brief closing ceremony. 1

2 Workshop opening speakers: Khun Thitisesh Seshtabutra, Mr. Attila Nyitrai and Dr. Carolyn Gates The workshop focused on the following topics: Competition policy and international trade; Bilateral FTA negotiations simulations. A Programme Agenda can be found attached in Annex 1. II. Objectives and Focus The FTA Programme seeks to train ASEAN Member States (AMS) delegates on key disciplines and issues concerning free trade agreements, international trade policy and FTA negotiations particularly from the perspective of the EU and ASEAN in order to build institutional capacity within the AMS government, private (and more recently) academic sectors. Training Workshop 5 was specifically designed for ASEAN government officials and private sector representatives who are involved in competition policy in the context of international trade. Two full days were devoted to competition policy issues from multi-varied perspectives including that of ASEAN and the EU. The remaining two days were allocated to negotiation simulation exercises. The FTA Programme funded three participants (two officials and one private sector representative) from each of the ASEAN-4 middle-income countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Philippines). To further its objective of ASEAN integration and narrowing the development gap, it supported a total of seven participants from each C-L-M-V country: five officials, one private sector representative and one academic (who was included to encourage the sustainability of training). While the FTA Programme does not fund the high-income countries of Brunei and Singapore, Brunei sent three representatives to this workshop. III. Modules, Sessions and Topics The first module, Competition Policy and International Trade, provided an overview of this topic from the conceptual, multilateral, EU and ASEAN perspectives. It consisted of 11 sessions on the following topics: Sessions 1-2: Competition policy and trade: economic and legal conceptual and theoretical frameworks; Session 3: Competition policy, international trade and development; Session 4: Competition policy and trade: the multilateral perspective; Sessions 5-6: European Union competition policy and law with respect to international trade; Sessions 7-8: ASEAN (regional) competition policy and law; 2

3 Sessions 9-10: ASEAN Member States competition policy and law; Session 11: De-briefing and wrap-up. Module 1: Participants and experts discussing competition policy issues The second module, Bilateral FTA Negotiations Simulations, which continued the structure of earlier training workshops, consisted of six sessions: Sessions 9-10: Before negotiating: Analysis and doing one s homework, establishing interests and preparing positions; Session 11: Negotiating team organisation and guidance; Session 12: Conducting negotiations; Session 13: Reporting on results of negotiations; Session 14: Negotiations wrap-up; debriefing and discussions about negotiations exercise. The final session assessed the workshop: Session 15: Discussion, assessment and evaluation of the workshop; participant feed-back. Module 2: Participant teams preparing for negotiations 3

4 Module 2: Lead negotiators presenting results of simulation exercises IV. Participants Participating in Workshop 5 were 47 delegates coming from nine ASEAN Member States: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Singapore as well as the ASEAN Secretariat sent no delegates. They included the following: Brunei: 3 Cambodia: 7 Indonesia: 2 Laos: 7 Malaysia: 2 Myanmar: 6 Philippines: 3 Thailand: 10 Vietnam: 7 4

5 Regional Trade Capacity-Building Workshop 5 group photo after closing ceremony 5