About

Honorable
W. Z. Estey

Donors

Executive
Director

Staff & Associates

Board of
Directors

About the Estey Centre

Estey Centre for Law and Economics in International Trade
Corporate Profile and Experience

The Estey Centre for Law and Economics in International Trade is an independent, not-for-profit interdisciplinary institution focusing on research and training in issues related to international trade, trade facilitation, trade policy, law and economics, including trade-related technical assistance and WTO capacity building for developing and transition economies.

The Executive Director is a former diplomat and ambassador and has extensive experience managing in-country trade-related training and technical assistance programs abroad. The Director-Professional Development accumulated a wealth of experience and expertise in international trade development during his foreign service career and has served as Principal Advisor-Capacity Building for the APEC Economic Integration Program (EIP). The Editor of the highly respected academic journal, The Estey Centre Journal of International Law and Trade Policy, is a Senior Associate of the Centre and a distinguished academic. The many associates of the Centre include retired and active international trade practitioners and academics with vast experience in virtually all facets of the field.

Experience of the Estey Centre for Law and Economics in International Trade

The Estey Centre for Law and Economics in International Trade has developed outstanding expertise in issues related to international trade, trade facilitation, trade policy, law and economics, including trade-related technical assistance and WTO capacity building for developing and transition economies.

Experience in carrying out trade-related assignments

In 2009, the Centre undertook an important project funded by the Commonwealth Secretariat to benchmark trade facilitation systems and processes in the Caribbean region. The commissioning authority was the Caribbean Customs Law Enforcement Council (CCLEC). The Centre's final report, which was accepted and enthusiastically endorsed by both CCLEC and the Commonwealth Secretariat, has led to plans to implement a 5-year regional trade facilitation program. The project would integrate a series of initiatives under the three themes of advocacy, capacity building and training, and regional trade facilitation tools and instruments, as the Centre had proposed in its final report.

In 2008, the Saskatchewan Trade & Export Partnership invited the Centre to participate as technical experts, in a trade facilitation training project funded by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. This project included the preparation of a UNCEFACT/UNECE Trade Facilitation Implementation Guide and Case Studies, the development and delivery of two pilot workshops in Entebbe, Uganda, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and the preparation of a Trainers' Manual. The UNECE subsequently decided to cancel the project before it could be completed.

In partnership with the International Trade Institute of Singapore with funding from the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Centre developed and delivered three in-country trade training programs in Vietnam, Lao PDR and Cambodia. The first dealt with Trade Development and Export Promotion; the second Trade Development and Strategies for Internationalization; and the third Trade Negotiation Strategies.

In partnership with The Conference Board of Canada, the Centre is currently implementing the five-year (extended for a sixth year to September 2010), $10 million APEC Economic Integration Program, funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), to build WTO-related capacity in six target countries: Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Lao PDR, Cambodia and Vietnam. The Centre is primarily responsible for the technical aspects of the implementation of the APEC Economic Integration Program, including the training program and technical assistance activities. The Executive Director serves as Director-Technical Expertise for the project, and the Director Professional Development acts as Principal Advisor-Capacity Building. The training program comprises an introductory module, Introduction to Trade Policy and the WTO, three advanced courses on Agricultural Trade Policy, Trade in Services, and Non-Agricultural Market Access, a three-day training session on Multi-Stakeholder Consultation and Coordination in the Development of National Trade Strategy, and a simulation-based course on Trade Negotiation Strategies. Delivery of the training program has been transferred to SEATRANET, the South East Asia Trade Policy Training Network, comprising the project's eight institutional partners: the International Institute for Trade and Development (IITD) in Bangkok; Trisakti University International Business School and the Trisakti School of Management in Jakarta; Foreign Trade University in Hanoi; the Economic Research Institute for Trade in Vientiane, Laos; IIC University of Technology in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and the Royal University of Law and Economics in Phnom Penh; and the Philippine Trade Training Center in Manila.

The textbook which has been used in the delivery of the introductory module, The Economics of International Business: A Guide to the Global CommercialEnvironment, is published by the Estey Centre. A licensing agreement was signed with Foreign Trade University of Vietnam to translate the book in Vietnamese for use in courses in economics and international trade taught at the university.

APEC EIP technical assistance activities have been far ranging and have included:

Experience in conducting trade-related studies

The Estey Centre undertakes both independent and commissioned research. Two major independent studies, Export Subsidies and the World Trade Organization, and International Regulation of Trade in the Products of Biotechnology, were very well received and widely distributed internationally to governments and governmental organizations, academics and libraries across Canada, the United States, Europe, Latin America and Oceania. Estey Centre staff and associates also publish articles regularly in leading academic journals, including the Journal of World Trade, The Journal of World Intellectual Property, The Journal of World Investment & Trade, and Journal of International Biotechnology Law, as well as the results of in-house research on the Centre's website.

Edward Elgar Publishing (UK) is well known for its highly regarded series of original reference works in the social sciences. In 2007, Elgar published the Handbook on International Trade Policy in association with the Estey Centre and edited by two Estey Centre associates.

Commissioned research undertaken by the Centre includes studies for several different federal government departments on such diverse topics as an assessment of the potential impact on Canadian trade of the Australia-USA FTA; transparency and citizen engagement in the trade policy advisory system; the Canada-EU trade relationship; the implications of ratifying the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety; and international trade policy issues associated with the commercialization of new agricultural products. Most recently, the Centre undertook a research project on geographic indicators of origin and developing countries for the World Bank-funded Fundacion CIMS (Centro de Investigacion de Mercados Sostenibles) in Costa Rica. The Centre was also contracted by twelve cities in the province of Saskatchewan to study the impact of the Trade, Investment, and Labour Mobility Agreement between Alberta and British Columbia on municipal jurisdiction, which resulted in the publication by the Estey Centre of A Space for Cities in Trade Agreements. The Centre has also done studies funded by the private sector on Canada-Brazil trade relations in the wake of the dispute over aircraft subsidies, and on the evolving international trade regime for food safety and environmental standards.

Trade-related training and professional development experience

The Estey Centre also offers training and professional development in a broad range of areas related to international trade, including training in trade facilitation, export promotion, and investment attraction and retention for economic development officers. The Centre was actively involved in the delivery of the Forum for International Trade Training programs, including FITTskills, which leads to the Certified International Trade Professional (C.I.T.P.) designation, and Going Global workshops.

The Centre has developed a highly successful training program for community and regional economic development officers which has been delivered in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and the Centre was contracted to take the lead in the preparation of a report for the Government of Saskatchewan and Western Economic Diversification Canada with respect to the development of a framework for effective rural economic development. The training program has now been successfully transferred to Indonesia where it is being delivered to communities in the province of Central Kalimantan in partnership with the Trisakti University International Business School and the Trisakti School of Management.

The Centre was contracted by CIDA to mentor the design, delivery and administration of a trade policy training workshop for the ASEAN Secretariat and ASEAN officials from Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The workshop was delivered at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta in mid-February 2010.

In the Dominican Republic, the Estey Centre was contracted by the Consejo Nacional de la Empresa Privada, Centro de Exportación e Inversión de la República Dominicana, and Consejo Nacional de Competitividad to deliver a two-day workshop entitled "Controla Tu Destino o Alguien Más lo Hará: Construyendo una Cultura de Competitividad para la Exportación" ("Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will: Building a Competitive Export Culture in the Dominican Republic") which was hugely successful and included four cabinet ministers and a senior advisor to the President. The objectives of the workshop were to identify the DR's strategic competitive advantages and explore the possibility of developing new ones, determine what the private sector needs to do, with the support of government, to ensure the country's success in export markets, and to develop a vision and action plan for the future. The Estey Centre has also signed an MOU with the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo, a key private university in the DR, which provides a framework for future collaboration.

The University of Saskatchewan, in collaboration with the Estey Centre, is offering a new online interdisciplinary post-graduate Master of International Trade degree program, which is designed for professionals and practitioners currently engaged in international trade and trade policy in government, international organizations and the private sector. The Executive Director and Director-Professional Development of the Estey Centre are Professional Affiliates of the College of Graduate Studies and Research at the University of Saskatchewan and of the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy which provides the operating umbrella for the program.

For more information please contact us at
Suite 820, 410 22nd Street East, 
Saskatoon SK, Canada S7K 5T6
Phone (306) 244-4800 Fax (306) 244-7839