ISSUE 1/2005

Aid agencies are buying supplies from Asia and other developing regions following the Asian tsunami in December 2004. ITC's networks of developing country suppliers are playing a role.

© International Trade Centre, International Trade Forum - Issue 1/2005 Photo: ITC J. Smadja, Deputy Executive Director of ITC, welcomed Mr Gil Moreira (left) to ITC. Gilberto Gil Moreira, Brazil's Minister for Culture, visited ITC in January 2005 to learn about ITC's work to promote exports in

The recent World Conference of Trade Promotion Organizations shows that TPO leaders are open to innovation, as they explore topics ranging from investment promotion to client relations to performance measurement.

In 2005, ITC's Executive Forum is working with its network in a new series of two-day sessions to spot best practices in national export strategy and bring them to the attention of others. Over 60 countries are expected to participate in these consultations during 2005:

The end of quotas in the textiles and clothing industry benefits large Asian producers. Yet other countries also have a stake in the business. The sector plays a major economic role in many least developed countries, especially in Africa, and in other small, vulnerable countries. To avoid losing important business, their firms need to exploit duty-free advantages to the full, diversify products and expand their supply chains.

Supporting trade development For many years, Forum has reported on trade promotion organizations. This Forum collection of 25 recent articles covers issues of importance to TPOs everywhere, including recommendations from the TPO world conferences and case examples of leading organizations.

More specialized customer services are being delivered more efficiently through communications technologies. TPOs now need to focus more on exporters of services, since European economies are over 80% based on services.

Behind TradeTrade Forum's new look is a new approach to reporting on trade development issues. The approach builds on your feedback to our 40th anniversary publications. We sum up our new emphasis in three words: advocacy, development and topicality. We continue to bring ITC's message of challenge - to bridge the gap between rich and poor - and of hope - to build on trade development practices that work and take action on a broader scale. Because our readers are diverse, and trade-related disciplines are many and complex, in our reporting we touch on the links between trade development and the current events or societal trends that matter to us all.With the spotlight on trade as a means to development, the articles below cover some important issues for developing countries, including training in WTO issues, the potential of services exports, and whether trade development assistance is effective.In this issue, find special reports on:Textiles and Clothing: What's the Cost for LDCs?Do TPOs Boost Exports?

© International Trade Centre, International Trade Forum - Issue 1/2005 Thesaurus of International Trade Terms Revision 4. 166 pages . (Technical Paper). Thesaurus intended to trade information services in developing countries, to be used for bibliographical description and indexing of information mat

ITC is updating its 330-page book, Coffee - An exporter's guide, published in late 2002, and adapting it to a web site version. The site http://www.thecoffeeguide.org became available in April 2005.

There are strong prospects for trade in services, particularly between developing countries. Over the past few years, ITC has refocused its activities in this sector to help countries take advantage of new opportunities.

Market-driven TPOs support outward-oriented trade and investment policies in successful Asian economies.Few current trade policy issues are as polarized as the debate over the relevance of trade promotion organizations (TPOs) for developing countries. Some ardent free traders see TPOs (particularly those funded and controlled by the state) as inefficient and costly bureaucratic structures that offer little support to exporting by private firms. Instead, they advocate rapid import liberalization and competitive exchange rates to stimulate exports.