International Trade Centre, a joint agency of the World Trade Organisation and the United Nations, working for enhancing trading capacities of developing countries, has turned its focus on India to help African small businesses increase exports to the country.
In an interview with Business Line, ITC Executive Director Arancha Gonzalez discusses the project and a range of activities being undertaken by her centre such as working with developing countries for smooth implementation of the World Trade Organisation's Trade Facilitation agreement and helping them meet the ever-rising quality standards in the West. Excerpts:
What is the objective behind the 'India-Africa' cooperation partnership that ITC has launched and how is it going to work?
India has a programme of trade preferences for Least Developed Countries. The project is about helping LDCs in Africa take advantage of the market access that India offers. We want to help develop contacts between Indian and African small businesses and facilitate exports to India. I am going to work with the CII and the Exim Bank here.
It will be the private sector in India helping private sectors in five countries in Africa – Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia. The project is being financed by the UK's Department for International Development (DFID, India). It is a great example of triangular cooperation.
Can Indian companies also expect to gain from this or is it just about helping industry in poorer countries?
The project is also about promoting Indian investments in Africa. Many Indian companies are already investing there. Through this, they get to know better a number of industrial sectors and they get to know better the small enterprises that are actors in those markets.
Gradually, we want to expand to other African countries and also develop similar business links between India and other Asian countries.
Following the Agreement on Trade Facilitation reached at the World Trade Organisation's Ministerial meet in Bali, smaller countries would need a lot of technical and financial support to upgrade infrastructure. What is ITC doing to help?
Immediately after the Bali deal was agreed upon, we published a guide to help private sector understand better what the agreement contains and through that help them comply with the terms of this agreement. We are now 100 per cent ready to help developing countries implement this agreement. We have struck a partnership with the Unctad. We have undertaken to help any developing country wanting our assistance to implement the Trade Facilitation deal. Now the priority is to make sure that we translate this text in concrete legislative changes and practical changes on the ground.
What about funding?
The WTO convened a meeting in the beginning of the year to take stock of the Bali agreement and called upon all donor agencies that could help in implementing this deal. The sense that I get is that funding is available. Donors are forthcoming. They understand they now need to honour part of the commitment they took in Bali to help implement this deal.
The question now is activating the deal. We have to work with developing countries to understand how much assistance they would require and in which areas so that donor support could be mobilised.
Developing countries often face problems in meeting the tough and ever-changing quality standards in developed countries. How can your organisation help?
We don't see a reduction in standards happening anywhere. So, the only way out is to increase the ability of companies to match those standards, and this is where we come in. ITC helps units to identify and meet quality standards, safety standards and sanitary standards.
We are the only organisation in the world to have mapped about 160 private standards worldwide on products such as coffee, tea, dairy products and chocolates. We have analysed the requirements of each and identified specific conditions that have to be fulfilled to meet those standards. We are helping companies with programs, technical support and expertise to help them match those standards.
Can Indian companies also benefit from the standards that ITC has mapped?
Yes, they can. It is a free-of-charge publicly available web-based tool that allows any company to access the standards for different products in different countries.