FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia

Elements: Capacity development on WTO agreements and other market integration agreement

International trade agreements like the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements form the basic rules for international trade and shape the environment for formulating domestic trade policies. This component foresees the training of civil servants, agrifood business representatives and agrifood experts on such global trade issues as market access, domestic support measures, technical barriers to trade, trade dispute resolution, trade facilitation, and transparency in agricultural trade policies. 

It is essential that decision makers, agricultural producers, and researchers have access to evidence and analysis on agrifood trade. FAO aims to make that information available while helping civil servants better analyze the impacts of trade, food, and agriculture policies and design strategies for the development of national agrifood systems.

Additionally, this Regional Priority Programme addresses increased interest in the development of inland commercial fisheries and freshwater aquaculture by helping to strengthen the technical capacities of countries on such issues as WTO agreements, WTO accession, market access, and fish trade.