About 60 experts from 30 African countries will on Wednesday in Addis Ababa begin a three-day workshop aimed at developing their capacity at making policy on trade and environment.

The workshop is a regional project which the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) is mandated to implement for Africa. Similar projects are being implemented by the three other UN regional Commissions -- the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the Economic and Social Commission for West Asia (ESCWA) and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

Participants will review a landmark report on “Trade and environment: Selected Issues of Concern for Africa”. The report, which draws on the experiences of many African countries, examines the tension between trade, development and environment.

This tension, says the Report, manifests at the levels of traders and producers and pose enormous challenges.

The challenges are nowhere more evident than in the “differences that bedevil international trade agreements stemming from the Uruguay Round and the World Trade organization, on the one hand, and those deriving from multilateral environmental agreements, on the other.

Accordingly, participants will review presentations on Africa and WTO, the Conceptual Framework of the Global and regional Contexts of Trade and Environment.

They will also discuss the environmental requirements and standards in developed countries and how they impact market access and environmental sustainability.

:: Related documents

• Draft Agenda

• Draft Work Programme

• Terms of Reference

• Trade and Environment: Selected Issues of Concern for Africa