An introductory workshop on WTO dispute settlement is being offered in Managua, Nicaragua, next month by UNCTAD, in collaboration with the Secretaría de Integración Económica Centroamericana, the Nicaraguan Ministry of Development, Industry and Trade and the US Agency for International Development in Managua.
The regional workshop for Central and South America (11-13 August) is the eleventh to be organized by UNCTAD´s project on dispute settlement in international trade, investment and intellectual property. Some 400 participants from about 80 developing countries, least developed countries and countries in transition have participated in the previous workshops. Government officials and diplomats dealing with international trade; academics; lawyers; and representatives of trade unions, the private sector and NGOs from Central America, the Caribbean and South America are expected to attend next month´s event.
The objective of the project in general and of this workshop in particular is to help build trade-related capacity in developing countries. The workshop will draw on four of 38 modules developed to date on such topics as the settlement of international trade disputes by WTO panels; how those panels´ reports are reviewed by the WTO appellate body; and how the appellate body´s decisions are implemented. Actual cases involving countries from the South American continent, and the impact of those cases both on national trading practices and on the practices of developing countries in general, will be analysed.
The workshop will be conducted in English with simultaneous interpretation into Spanish. Details on registration and free copies of the course materials, which will also be distributed in Spanish at the workshop, can be found on www.unctad.org/dispsett. Some 275,000 copies of the modules have been downloaded from the project website to date, most of them by users from developing countries.
The workshop is being financed by the United Nations and the Government of France.
