THE LATIN AMERICAN TRADE AGENDA:
STAKES AND PRIORITIES
IDRC Grant 101088-001
Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) Argentina
Project Staff Director: Diana Tussie Deputy Director: Miguel F. Lengyel Communication Director: Tracy Tuplin Assistant Researcher: Cintia Quiliconi/Valentina Delich Administrative Assistant: Celsa Dominguez
Final Technical Report August 2004
Table of contents
SYNTHESIS ...... 2
RESEARCH PROBLEM ...... ……3
RESEARCH FINDINGS ...... …..4
FULFILLMENT OF OBJECTIVES...... ……. 5
PROJECT DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION ...... ………..7
- Organization and Management of the Research Network .………………….……… 7 - Preparation of Research Studies...... 11
PROJECT OUTPUTS AND DISSEMINATION………………………………………………………. 14
- Dissemination...... ………………………………………………………………. 14 - Outputs...... 17
CAPACITY BUILDING...... …………………………….. 21
PROJECT MANAGEMENT………………………………………………………………………………… 22
IMPACT……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 23
TRANSITION PERIOD……………………………………………………………………………………. 25
OVERALL ASSESSMENT……………………………………………………………………………..…. 27
ANNEX………………………...... 28
1 SYNTHESIS
Building on the lessons of the IDRC-supported project Leading Issues in International Trade Relations (otherwise the “Leading Issues...” project), this project was designed with two principal goals in mind:
• To conduct in depth policy-oriented research on key issues of the Latin American trade agenda post- Uruguay Round (UR); and • To consolidate the profile and standing of the Latin American Trade Network (LATN) –created during the “Leading Issues...” project- as a region-wide, specialized cadre of trade analysts and enhance its capacity to support the process of trade policy making throughout the region.
The project’s rationale was to further the process of capacity building on trade matters in the region. It proposed to do so by addressing through research the need of negotiators and policy makers for strategic inputs on priority issues resulting from Latin America’s full integration in the world trading system. In particular, those issues were related to the implementation of the UR commitments, the resumption of negotiations on the built-in-agenda, the increasing salience of the “social dimension” of trade, the sudden appearance of governance challenges after Seattle and the momentum gained by the initiative to constitute a free trade area in the hemisphere.
The project’s methodological approach was essentially problem-driven and comprised two main threads. On one hand, research sought a balance between holistic analysis and detailed inquiry by paying attention to both overarching variables and the multiple procedural, technical and policy particulars that shape outcomes. In this last sense, the project sought to deepen LATN´s research focus by analyzing critical issues of the trade agenda (trade relief, agriculture and trade in services) with a particular concern for their technical aspects. On the other hand, research combined both backward- and forward-looking perspectives by paying attention to the policy and institutional consequences of past commitments as well as to the future negotiating options and their implications for the region.
Research along these lines brought about several findings concerning the integration of Latin American countries in the world trading system. The most important of them were: • Latin American countries’ underestimation of the complexities and potential high costs involved in the full implementation of URAs in many regulatory policy areas; • The limited capabilities of most countries to develop proactive negotiating positions vis-a- vis the expanded trade agenda; • The difficulties to meet the WTO development mandate established at Doha; and • The unexpectedly large differences among negotiating proposals at the multilateral and hemispheric levels, once their technical dimensions were duly considered.
Through the production of timely and systematic analyses on still unattended key issues of the Latin American trade agenda and the consolidation of a sustained flow of research inputs to decision makers, the project expected to reduce the region’s knowledge constraints to maximize the benefits of integration into an increasingly complex trading system. Through the strengthening of LATN, the project sought in turn to continue developing indigenous mechanisms for knowledge generation, embedded into local contexts. As shown both by the increasing use of LATN’s products for decision-making on trade policy and the success of the network in carving a niche for itself as a regional mechanism for policy-relevant knowledge production, the expected impact of the project was largely met.
The project was also quite successful in finding additional sources of support for the network’s research work. While most of this additional funding was geared to cover indirect costs
2 (research consultant, meeting expenses), it amounted to about 50% of the total funds IDRC’s disbursed for the entire life of the project.
RESEARCH PROBLEM
The passage from GATT to WTO as a result of the Uruguay Round (UR) was a turning point in the international trade scenario for Latin American countries. For the first time they became fully and formally integrated into the world trading system, clearly showing their willingness to play by the new rules. Their engagement was not free from costs, as they had to accept a new conceptualization of special and differential treatment (S&D) which undermined their former rights and status. In addition, they had to make commitments in areas of particular interest for developed countries in order to get their own stakes included into the negotiation agenda.
In this context, the “Leading Issues...” project aimed at producing a broad base analysis of Latin America’s dilemmas after the UR, by mapping out the results of the round and its major policy implications, particularly in terms of the policy space left. In keeping with this research focus, the “Leading Issues...” project was able to show that Latin American countries got into negotiations without a careful assessment of the implications of commitments, of the trade-offs of making commitments at different levels and of the intricacies of implementing the new disciplines. It also highlighted the limited technical capacity of those countries to craft proposals that further their interests, particularly in several “trade-related” policy areas dealing with non- border issues. Finally, the project results convincingly supported the claim that net gains from the UR were extremely meager for the region, whether the yardstick for assessment was market access payoffs or the suitability of the regulatory/institutional reforms unleashed by the URAs. In sum, by producing research outputs disentangling the general policy implications of the UR agreements, the “Leading Issues... “ project filled up a research need in the region. Those outputs constituted an encompassing picture from which to further analyze multilateral trade commitments.
Building upon those insights, but also paying due attention to a trade environment that was posing new areas of concern and, therefore, turning the region’s trade agenda more complex and demanding, the main research problem this project addressed was the so-called “new challenges of inclusion”. This meant that main lines of research were oriented to deal with the technicalities of key issues on which negotiations kept moving at the multilateral level (such as those comprising the built-in agenda) and were being set in motion at the hemispheric level (market access, agriculture and services); to assess the consequences of implementing and administering past commitments (particularly in institution-intensive regulatory areas such as TRIPs, custom valuation, SPS and telecommunications); to explore how to gain greater control and be more proactive over the expansion of the agenda (tackling issues such as labor standards); and to explore the scope and implications of governance problems critical for developing countries, in particular S&D and rule enforcement. The project thus kept the problem-driven approach of its predecessor, while fine-tuning its research focus to address more effectively the implications of the technical intricacies of ongoing negotiations. Through this move it sought to substantially contribute to underscore and assess the costs and benefits of existing or eventual international trade commitments Latin American countries would have to deal with.
It is important to note, however, that towards the end of the project, a greater concern with the implications of international trade commitments for the development needs and prospects of Latin American countries gradually emerged both within the project’s Direction and among some of the researchers involved. This increasing salience of the trade-development link was related to various reasons, the most important being the increasing consensus that even full integration in the global trading system do not automatically translate in development gains.
3 That trade is a means to an end (development), not an end in itself, that countries should have the right to further their own development priorities and protect their own institutional arrangements and that trade rules should allow greater diversity in national institutions and standards. In the same vein, the need to strengthen the capacity of Latin American countries to identify policy priorities and entrench them in trade negotiations, so that to genuinely take advantage of a trade regime more friendly to development, became also part of the emerging understanding of the research problem. Quite obviously, the development label of the Doha Round fueled this trend. This new concern was reflected in the project recently submitted to IDRC (“Latin America and the World Trading System: Building Knowledge for Successful Inclusion”) for the period 2004-2006.
RESEARCH FINDINGS
After six years of life and two projects concluded, LATN has gone a long way to carve itself a distinctive niche and develop a growth profile as a regional knowledge network producing policy-relevant research in the trade field. By and large, this has to do with a hands-on research agenda that addressed complex and changing knowledge needs in a highly dynamic environment, thus strengthening the network’s research focus along the projects.
In line with the main research problems concerning the project, particularly significant substantive findings include:
Negotiating proposals both at the multilateral and hemispheric levels differ to a much larger extent than expected, even among Latin American countries, once their technical dimensions are examined in depth. As shown by, for instance, LATN’s work on agriculture in the FTAA, the proposals submitted by the United States and Brazil grossly differ on key items such as the use of band price systems or the implementation of price safeguards during transitions periods. LATN’s research provided similar findings on market access in the FTAA and trade in services in the WTO;
Latin American countries underestimated the complexities and potential high costs of fully implementing the URAs’ in many regulatory policy areas. Case studies on Argentina, Costa Rica and Peru highlight in this regard that a crucial flaw was not to take into account preexistent institutional capacities, development needs and local political economy conditions, as well as the gap between government policy preferences and the direction of reforms the URAs requested;
The WTO development mandate has proved to be an elusive target to meet, notwithstanding that negotiations have been underway for over two years. In this sense, the project’s research work on S&D and rule enforcement (and the discussion on these issues held at the 2003 Plenary Meeting) underlined the difficulties to give operational meaning to those notions or to conclusively assess the trade-off of proposals such as “fast track procedures” or “country differentiation.”
In terms of policy process formulation, important insights were provided by the analysis on labor standards conducted in Block 1 of the project. In particular, it became clear that a more proactive position vis-à-vis the expanded trade agenda requires strengthening capabilities to develop negotiating proposals deeply informed by local policy choices while enlarging the space that international trade arrangements allow for different policy scripts. Actually, as expressed in the concluding chapter of the book produced during the project1, this finding served to think
1 Part of the substantive results of LATN I and II are contained in the books Trade Negotiations in Latin America, edited by Diana Tussie, and Trade Policy Reform in Latin America, edited by Miguel Lengyel and Vivianne Ventura-Dias, published by MacMillan-Palgrave in 2003 and 2004 respectively.
4 about the broader process of rule-making at the WTO, particularly in terms of the space it grants for development policies seriously in want in many developing countries.
In sum, the project contributed to better understand the policy dilemmas and constraints Latin American countries faced as a result of their increased engagement in the trade system during the period of implementing UR disciplines in a variety of fronts. In addition, its findings also provided a platform to better think about the novel trade environment and challenges Latin American countries face at the onset of the new century while bringing a new sense of urgency and greater significance to the task of addressing them. Theses are precisely the main concerns the project recently submitted to IDRC proposes to tackle down, which may be summarized as follows:
♦ The defining trait of such environment is the stagnation of negotiations since 2001, currently crowned by the Cancun Ministerial Conference’s failure to reach consensus. While fed by fixed polarized positions and repetitive failures to meet deadlines, this paralysis reflects not only sharp disagreements on key trade issues. It first reveals the novel capacity of developing countries to hold their ground against their developed counterparts and impede a re-edition of the UR. It also involves the emergence of a trend among major trading powers to disengage themselves from multilateral trade negotiations and turn towards bilateral and regional agreements. It also exposes unambiguously the failure of the WTO to give concrete meaning to the “trade and development” agenda. Last but not least, it deepens the WTO’s declining credibility as the mechanism governing trade relations, revitalizing calls from the academic and policy communities for organizational and procedural reforms.
♦ This stalemate scenario has risen concerns about the risks for the ability of developing countries, Latin American among them, to further their interests in trade negotiations. This includes overcoming their limits to articulate proposals and strategies for successful inclusion and avoiding that a lasting blockage of WTO negotiations could well end up consolidating the current move of developed countries towards the “bilateralization/regionalization” of trade relations and “forum-shopping” practices or with developing countries loosing the sole international trade instance in which the trade- development link is expressly and formally addressed.
♦ The “Doha Round back on track” scenario shows quite complex challenges as well for Latin American countries to be able to benefit from international trade negotiations. Such challenges involve, first, further strengthening their capacities to deal with the technicalities of negotiations and turning them into well-founded, politically feasible policies and negotiating strategies that meet the yardstick of development needs. Second, adopting a more active role in the elaboration of sound and consistent proposals to operationalize the trade and development agenda. Finally, getting a voice in ongoing debates on WTO reform, expressing as forcefully as possible what they expect from that organization qua governance body, the problems they think that need to be fixed and the policies and mechanisms to do so.
FULFILLMENT OF OBJECTIVES
As stated in the grant agreement, this project had two general objectives:
• To continue supporting the effort of Latin American countries to handle their multifaceted and intricate trade agenda, by conducting first-rate, policy oriented research on critical issues, and by ensuring that research outputs reach policy makers and other stakeholders in a timely and user-friendly manner.
5 • To consolidate LATN as a specialized trade forum within the region by strengthening the institutional links, communication mechanisms and cooperation instances the network has already developed among academic researchers, policy makers and the private sector.
Both objectives were largely fulfilled. The first one, by fully and timely carrying out policy- oriented research work on fundamental issues of the Latin America trade agenda, namely, the cost and benefits of implementing the Uruguay Round commitments; the resumption of negotiations on the built-in-agenda, the increasing salience of the “social dimension” of trade, the sudden appearance of governance challenges after Seattle and the momentum gained by the initiative to constitute a free trade area in the hemisphere. Therefore, as planned in the project proposal (specific objectives 1, 2 and 3), an intensive activity of production and dissemination of working papers, briefing papers, negotiation reports and negotiation handbooks was developed to meet these goals (see Project Outputs below for a detailed account). It is worth stressing that the former was achieved without jeopardizing the relatively high quality-level of research work that LATN established as one of its main benchmarks for performance since its beginning.
At the same time, the project was able to turn LATN into a pivotal and differentiated institutional endeavor for independent, high-quality research and indigenous capacity-building on trade matters within the region as well as to improve its effectiveness to influence trade policy making. By and large, success in this regard had to do with:
♦ The incorporation of new researchers and institutions from the region into the network (specific objective 5). The IICA from Colombia, the Universidad de Chile, the Universidad de la República from Uruguay, the Universidad de Puebla from Mexico and the Central Bank from Ecuador were part of this process, the latter at its own request;
♦ The consolidation and development of a sustained flow of knowledge inputs to key decision-makers through effective communication mechanisms (specific objective 3). This was made possible by the successful efforts made to consolidate and expand the list of recipients of LATN’s products and to increase and make more fluid the participation of key stakeholders in LATN’s events; by the implementation of new forms of contacts and meetings; and by the implementation of mechanisms for monitoring and assessing the communication processes.
♦ The increasing capacity of LATN to serve the needs of policy-makers and other key stakeholders, without attempting to replace or displace other existing and effective knowledge-producing initiatives (specific objective 4). Crucial in this sense were: a. the development by the network of closer relationships with instances/agencies directly involved in trade negotiations; b. The direct involvement of policy-makers in the design and production of research outputs. The latter was key to make interactions with relevant stakeholders denser and more dynamic and to achieve a greater fit between supply and demand of knowledge. In other words, to ensure the as great as possible “social embeddeness” of the knowledge produced.
♦ The implementation of mechanisms to learn from experience and to incorporate lessons learned to continually improve its own effectiveness (specific objective 4). This involved, first, the organization by LATN of a workshop on “Managing Knowledge Networks” (Montevideo, December 5-6, 2003), which provided a valuable set of conceptual and operational tools for managers to improve the operations of the organizations they run. Second, LATN’s organization of an internal retreat (Buenos Aires, March 6-7) to discuss with external experts and IDRC’s officials from Ottawa and Montevideo a myriad of strategic, organizational and operational issues concerning the network’s evolution and long-term sustainability. Third, the implementation of mechanisms for self-assessment of LATN’s level of influence and appropriateness of their products. They essentially consisted of an index
6 conceived during the “Leading Issues....,” project to measure the outreach capacity and impact of the network’s research outputs on policy-makers and negotiators. It includes two main dimensions: a record of requests for LATN products from people that have not been targeted, discriminating according to their professional field and geographical origin; and an information matrix on public officials’ assessment of LATN products and the use they make of them. Finally, the training of the Coordination Unit during the last phase of the project (actually during the extension phase I) on a new IDRC’s promoted methodology for project formulation, implementation, monitoring and assessment, the Outcome Mapping Methodology. This process included a workshop involving IDRC’s experts held in early April in Montevideo.
♦ The consolidation of LATN’s sub-regional nodes and the establishment of new ones on a needs-and-opportunity basis (specific objective 5). In the case of the Andean node, the Pontificia Universidad Católica in Peru (PUCP) became a virtual co-coordinator of LATN activities in that region by developing a proactive attitude towards the management of activities planned by the Coordination Unit as well as the generation of additional initiatives particularly in terms of research and dissemination. An ambitious work agenda was, in turn, agreed upon with the Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica to fortify the Central America node which was gradually developed during the length of the project and prepared the node for taking larger responsibilities and attributions in a following phase. Finally, the need to start developing a third node in Brazil was agreed upon by the project Steering Committee during its meetings of November 2003 and March 2004.
♦ The increasing presence of LATN in Central America, in the smaller Latin American countries and in Chile (specific objective 6). As for Central America, the highly positive developments of the node there speak by themselves. LATN was able to consolidate its standing in Chile through the development of very fluid and collaborative relationships with the Trade Division of the United Nations Commission for Latin American and the Caribbean. Finally, LATN got the full engagement of the Research Division of the Ecuadorian Central Bank in the network research work. In addition to research production, this institutional relationship was highly functional for the dissemination of LATN’s products in that country, particularly within the policy community linked to trade negotiations.
♦ The continuation and intensification of efforts undertaken during the “Leading Issues...” project to support the development of young scholars and researchers throughout the region. These included, on one hand, the incorporation of young scholars as research assistants in the project on a temporary basis, such as the cases of Soledad Salvador (CIEDUR, Uruguay) and Marcela Gajardo (PREAL, Chile) and María Laura Escuder (Asociación Civil Los Algarrobos, Argentina); on the other, the identifications of young researchers to which some of the planned research work could be commissioned. The latter includes the cases of Marco Baquero from the Ecuadorian Central Bank and Jaime Niño, from the Universidad Andrés Bello, Colombia.
PROJECT DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION
As in the previous project, activities were carried out as set out in the Memorandum of Grant Conditions. The project thus focused on three types of activities as established in the grant conditions: Organization and Management of the Research Network, Preparation of Research Studies, and Outreach and Dissemination. Following is a detailed account of the main tasks carried out in order to reach the results above described
Organization and Management of the Network
The sustained growth and expansion of LATN during the life of the project meant that its
7 management kept entailing strategic issues and multiple piecemeal tasks that load the daily work agenda of the Coordination Unit. Without making an exhaustive list of them it is worth mentioning the following activities: - Periodic discussions on how to improve the management of the network by, among other things, trying to apply to LATN’s work insights provided by Fred Carden’s review of the literature on research influence on policy and by the literature on networks and insights provided by the Workshop “Managing Knowledge Networks”, which LATN organized and gathered IDRC and external experts as well as managers of several IDRC sponsored knowledge networks; - Periodic discussions on research priorities, drawing information both from primary and secondary data sources and with the increasing involvement of the project Steering Committee (SC); - Internal meetings for strategizing and prioritizing issues related to the network management; - Mapping out alternative sources of funding to support or expand LATN’s activities; - Pushing members to keep the coordination unit updated about their activities and to provide it articles for newspapers they may have written in order to disseminate them within the whole LATN’s community; - Preparation of projects for submission for additional funding, including the contacts with researchers and pertinent officials (the World Bank, the Global Development Network (GDN), ALADI, and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)). (See Organization of Research Studies for details); - Revision of the format of documents employed in the management of the research network (e.g., contracts, terms of reference, etc.) in order to improve it; - Periodic discussion with the IADB representatives on how to better move forward the project on trade and labor standards, part of Block I of The Latin American Trade Agenda project. - Review of templates carried out by LATN members (Alan Fairlie on trade in services, Marisa Diaz-Henderson on Agriculture) for the World Bank; - Evaluation of research proposals submitted to ASIES (Central American Network) call; - Preparation of several articles for LATN web page (“Trade Promotion Authority: Scope and Implications for Latin America”, “Doha: A Development Round?”, “América Latina: Paradigmas en Crisis?”, “El Area de Libre Comercio de las Américas después de Buenos Aires”, “El Sector Automotor en el Mercosur: La Lógica de la Competencia en la Ruta”, “La Nueva Farm Bill”, “Estándares Laborales: Una Condicionalidad para el Acceso a Mercados?”; - Elaboration of papers by Tussie, Lengyel and Delich for other institutions/ publications (World Bank, United Nations University, etc .) - Support to the Economic and Social Consultative Forum of the Group of MERCOSUR for the preparation of the evaluation of the European Union offer in goods; - Organization of teleconferences on the impact of the Argentine crisis in the region and on the meaning of Doha discourse on development. - Conclusion of the process of elaboration of the two volumes to be published by the LATN I (translation and editing of the papers, writing of introduction of volume I and conclusion of volume II, visit to the Trade Division of ECLAC/Chile to discuss progress of volumes for publication, etc.).
The decision made at the onset of LATN II to constitute a Steering Committee to support the efforts of the Coordination Unit in the management of the network proved wise and was furthered as the project evolved. Gradually, all members of the Committee actively engaged in the provision of suggestions concerning the content of research work, the development of activities to move LATN work forward and the identification of new windows of opportunity to strengthen the network’s standing. Interactions between the Coordination Unit and the Steering Committee turned as a result very dynamic, involving
8 increasing individual as well as group discussions. This process was further deepened towards the end of the project as it was decided that to give the SC larger attributions concerning both substantive (i.e., definition of the research agenda) as procedural aspects of the network. These larger attributions and higher status was formalized in the new proposal submitted in June to IDRC;
In terms of LATN internal membership, efforts were directed on one hand, to prop up the standing of the network in Chile and Mexico, two countries in which inroads had been feeble for different reasons (a passive attitude of local members and presence of strong local institutions working on similar issues); and, on the other hand, to broaden the number of members actively engaged. To those ends, the coordination unit decided to deepen collaboration with ECLAC/Chile and to open new avenues with the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico. The first decision, as already noted, proved wise as ECLAC strongly contributed to the organization of the Fourth Plenary Meeting in Santiago, Chile (December 2004) and actively engaged in the network’s activities since then. The Universidad Iberomaricana was engaged in research work and the dissemination of LATN’s outputs. It is also worked to establish denser contacts with policy-makers in Mexico as well as with FTAA negotiators now settled in Puebla. Finally, It also work hard to co-organize with CIDE (already a network member) the Fifth Plenary Meeting in Mexico in November 2003. Lines of collaboration somehow weakened after that event, being the issue of how refurbish lines of collaboration a subject to be addressed in the next phase of LATN;
Efforts in a same direction were successfully carried out in Colombia and Ecuador as the Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación Agrícola (IICA) and the Central Bank were, respectively, brought into the network and actively engaged in the production of research work. Going beyond the region, LATN also incorporated an expert established in Geneva who, in addition to taking responsibility for carrying out research, started to fuel the network’s reach in the missions of Latin American countries in that city;
Plans to incorporate an institution from Bolivia, so that to further expand the presence of LATN throughout the region, did not prosper as expected mainly because there was uncertainty about the expertise of the options considered. It is expected that this issue will be dealt successfully as soon as the new project gets started;
Actions to consolidate the nodes in the Andean Community and in Central America were ceaseless and largely rewarding, as mentioned before. In the first case, following the visit of the Project’s Deputy Director to Peru in September 2002 that the Pontificia Universidad Católica (PUCP) organized, activities developed in a sustained way. Indeed, the PUCP took responsibility for setting in motion the project “Negotiating Trade in Services: Implications for the Andean Community of Nations”, financed through the funds secured by the Coordination Unit from the Perez Guerrero Trust Fund/Group of 77. It also organized with OXFAM/Peru a workshop in April 2003 titled “Agenda Regional de las Negociaciones Comerciales sobre Agricultura: ¿Que Ganarán los Pequeños Productores? (Regional Agenda of Trade Negotiations in Agriculture: What do Small Producers have to Win?). Finally, the LATN node jointly organized with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation a seminar on FTAA with the United States: Lessons from the Chilean and Centro American Experiences in Lima, Peru, March 18-19. To which roughly 250 people from the scholar and policy-making communities as well as from the private sector attended.
As part of the ambitious work agenda thought to further the Central American node around the Universidad de Costa Rica, actions also unfolded quite successfully. They included the involvement of the university in a research project that LATN undertook with the financial support of the World Bank on the implementation of the Uruguay
9 Round commitments; a seminar on the importance and implications of CAFTA negotiations jointly organized with the IICA (Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture), the Ministry of External Trade (COMEX) and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE) in November 2003; and negotiations with the Central American Bank of Economic Integration to get additional funds for the dissemination activities of the network in the subregion and with the IICA to sign a framework agreement for future endeavors. The future development of the Costa Rica node contemplates the active involvement of the Central America Research Network headed by ASIES, as committed in the project currently submitted to IDRC;
The fine tuning of the setting up of a LATN node in Brazil was initiated towards the end of the project. Several meetings (taking advantage of shared international events) with Pedro da Motta Veiga have served to delineate and agree the horizon and scope of such a node. In view of the particularities of the Brazilian agenda, it was decided that the organization and implementation of the fourth and final Expert Meeting on Labor Standards in Brazil could be a good opportunity to position the node.
The maximization of the returns from institutional links developed during the “Leading Issues...” project and the development of new ones in order to consolidate LATN’s identity and profile as a specialized policy-oriented network of first-rate scholars, as well as to broaden its basis of sustainability. With that explicit goal in mind relationships with the World Bank, OAS, IADB, UNCTAD and ECLAC has been deepened, while new relationships with the Group of 77, ALADI and FAO has been developed. As a result, funds were secured from the IADB to support research on labor standards conducted in Block I of the project and from the World Bank to conduct research on the costs of implementing the Uruguay Round Agreements in Argentina, Costa Rica and Peru. ECLAC, in turn, funded a paper to examine changes in the Farm Bill while the Group of 77 provided funds through the Perez Guerrero Trust Fund to conduct research on trade in services in the Andean countries. Funds were also secured from ALADI to study the implications of the FTAA for industry in member countries and from FAO to examine the market structure on the agribusiness sector in Brazil and its implications for competition policy and negotiations on agriculture. The following chart summarizes co-financing obtained over the course of the project:
Issue Co-financing institution Contribution Farm Bill ECLAC $6,000 Trade and labor standards IADB $150,000 Implementation costs of World Bank $ 54,000 URAs Impact of FTAA on ALADI $20,000 Industry Services – ACN perspective Perez Guerrero Fund $ 20,000 Agribusiness in Brazil FAO $ 10,000 TOTAL CO-FINANCING $ 260,000
Towards the end of the project further efforts were made to expand the amount of co- financing. These include the submission of a proposal to the Global Development Network (GDN) to study the influence of research on trade policy-making in Chile, Brazil and Argentina. The proposal was selected with other 40 (out of 350) and work begun to adapt terms of reference and budget to GDN's guidelines. They also included the submission of a proposal to the Ford Foundation to co-finance the GDN case studies and provide additional support to FLACSO team and the beginning of work to renew the Perez Guerrero grant.
10 The deepening of institutional relationships paid off not only in terms of securing additional funds but also of the visibility of LATN. In this sense, and just to mention the most important episodes, LATN was invited by Net Americas (OAS) to organize two panels in the 2002 annual meeting of the organization; by IADB-Intal to present their own panel in the Academic Colloquium of the Americas in October 2002, simultaneously with the Quito Ministerial Conference of the FTAA; by the International Center for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) to co-organize a session in the parallel academic symposium to the September 2003 Ministerial Conference of the WTO at Cancun, Mexico; and by UNCTAD to participate in the discussion sessions of UNCTAD XI, held in San Pablo, Brazil, June of this year.
The project deepened the preliminary steps taken during the “Leading Issues ...” project to establish lines of collaboration between LATN and the other IDRC’s sponsored networks in the regional, namely, the MERCOSUR Network and the Central America informal network coordinated by ASIES (Guatemala). In addition to exchange of information among the networks’ coordinators, cooperation took place through some concrete initiatives motorized by LATN, such as LATN financing the participation of the coordinators of the MERCOSUR Network and ASIES in Latin Plenary Meetings, Cluster or Thematic Meetings, supporting with funds training activities carried out by ASIES (see Project Output and Dissemination below), and commissioning papers to those coordinators (i.e., for the labor standards research block);
Definition of a medium term vision for LATN work plan. The coordination unit elaborated a first draft including substantive research needs and new directions on management and structure. This document was an input of the next LATN project and was discussed in a special retreat that the Coordination Unit carried out mid-March, 2004 with the involvement of the network Steering Committee, IDRC officials related to LATN and external observers/experts.
Participation of Canadian experts (Evert Lindquist, University of Victoria and Heather Creech, IISD), was particularly useful for reaching the goals expected in the workshops “Influence of Research on Public Policy” (December 2002) and “Managing Knowledge Networks” (December 2003) of generating novel management insights on this type of organizations (see Capacity-building subsection below);
Preparation of research studies
During the project, the preparation of LATN research studies proceeded as originally planned, both in terms of the timing and procedures involved. As a result, 20 working papers, 10 negotiations reports and 6 briefing papers were concluded. The chart that follows summarizes the state of research work by the time of writing this report.
Issues Stage of Development Block 1: Overarching Issues Participation of Developing Countries in the WTO 1 paper concluded Governance of World Trade trough the WTO 1 paper concluded Trade, Development and Labor Standards 8 papers concluded
11 Block 2: Specific Technical issues Trade Relief Measures (2 papers) - Tariff-Jumping, Antidumping and Anti-competitive Behavior 1 paper concluded - Impact of Trade Relief Measures on Trade Flows 1 paper discontinued* Trade in Agricultural Products (2 papers) - Agricultural Negotiations and the Central 1 paper concluded American Countries Trade Interests 1 paper discontinued* Trade in Services (4 papers) - Evaluation of Uruguay Round Commitments on Trade in Services 1 paper concluded ** - Trade in Services and Regional Agreements 1 paper concluded *** - Negotiations on Trade in Services and the Central American Countries Trade Interests 1 paper concluded - E-commerce in Latin America 1 paper concluded Block 3: New Forum-related Challenges - Bridges, Roads and Hurdles across Hemispheric and Multilateral Negotiations 1 paper concluded - FTAA Negotiation reports (12): Market access 2 reports concluded Agriculture 4 reports concluded Trade in Services 4 reports concluded * Papers were discontinued because work in process did not meet quality standards. ** Turned into negotiation manual format. *** This paper was partially funded by the Perez Guerrero Trust Fund (PGTF).
Production of briefing papers was highly dynamic and covered the following topics: TRIPs and public health, Geographical Indications, Negotiations on subsidies, GMO’s and trade, Liberalization of education services and liberalization of health services. Particular concern was placed on recruiting young scholars to research and write topic briefings as well as to cover policy areas under researched and of utmost interest from the development needs and priorities of many developing countries. Briefs were very demanded and the ones on TRIPs and liberalization of health services ran out of stock and were re-printed.
Two handbooks were completed this semester: one on services by Francisco Prieto (building on the paper produced in Block II) and another one on agriculture by Marisa Diaz Henderson. The handbook on services was presented for the first time at a course in Georgetown University. The handbook on agriculture was first developed by UNCTAD for a course of their own and is now in the process of adaptation for LATN´s Spanish speaking constituency.
Part of the efforts concerning research production was directed to the completion of LATN´s second volume. Vivianne Ventura Dias spent two intense weeks in Buenos Aires with Miguel Lengyel to edit the manuscript and the introduction and conclusion to the book. The manuscript was turned in at the end of April and the book was out in February 2004.
The Coordination Unit constantly monitored the work in process, particularly with a view on ensuring the quality standards being reached. It also maintained a regular exchange with researchers involved, drafting and re-drafting Policy Briefs and other products. Public officials were regularly consulted in order to identify policy windows, especially for issues related to the negotiations in the FTAA which have acquired a noticeable momentum in the run up to the final phase of LATN II.
12 Research activities however, went beyond the programmed work. First, the network carried out two additional papers on the implications of trade in services in the Andean Community of Nations with the support of the Perez Guerrero Trust Fund. Second, a study on the implications of the Farm Bill for agricultural negotiations was concluded with the support of the Trade Division of ECLAC. Third, the coordination unit put in motion and virtually concluded a study commissioned by the World Bank on the costs of implementation of a set of Uruguay Round Agreements (services, custom valuation, TRIPS, sanitary and phytosanitary measures and technical barriers to trade). The study includes three case studies, Argentina, Peru and Costa Rica. It begun in Argentina, as a pilot case from which to draw lessons to be extended to the other two cases. Fourth, a study assessing the impact of the FTAA negotiation in industry was concluded under request and support from ALADI. Fifth, four papers on the trade international scenario for Argentina were written at the request and with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Finally, a paper con agribusiness, competition policy and trade was recently concluded with the support of FAO.
In a similar vein, the Coordination Unit led the high caliber Regional Round Table on labor standards, with special funding and by request of the IADB. The Round Table addressed part of the research concerns comprising Block I and convened high profile players as well as prominent academics. Three meeting were held during the life of the project, the last one in April 2004 in Villa La Angostura, Argentina.
Furthermore, the coordination unit engaged in the elaboration of other papers either under request or as a result of the requirements of moving forward the network’s activities. Among them, the Project Director wrote a paper on competition for FDI in Mercosur for presentation at the Centre for Brazilian Studies in Oxford (see Project Related International Travel and Meetings), another on the FTAA negotiations that was presented in the NetAmericas Meeting held in Washington DC in November 2002 and a third on new trade coalitions for the United Nations University (UNU). The Project Deputy Director wrote in turn a review paper on the debate about the link between trade and labor standards, another with Pedro da Motta Veiga on labor standards in MERCOSUR and a paper on trade and development for UNU. He also elaborated the concluding chapter (The Latin American Countries and the WTO: Addressing Institutional Barriers to Development) for LATN’s the second volume on trade policy in eight Latin American countries during the 1990s. .Tussie and Lengyel also prepared chapter for the World Bank Handbook “Development, Trade and the WTO” and for Maggi and Messner volume “Gobernanza Global. Una Mirada desde América Latina”. Valentina Delich also wrote a chapter on dispute settlement for the World Bank Handbook and a paper on WTO governance and dispute settlement that was delivered at the aforementioned NETAmericas meeting. Tussie and Delich wrote two reports on WTO and FTAA negotiations within the framework of the technical assistance requested by the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a paper on the legalization of trade relations under request and support of the WTO. Finally, the Director has participated as Guest Editor for the World Economy.
The project was particularly concerned with involving in a systematic way its fundamental beneficiaries (trade negotiators and policy-makers) in the identification of research problems, definition of approaches to address them, design of research work and review of results. The rationale for this was to enhance the capacity of research work to address relevant policy needs. In other words, the involvement of policy makers in the production of research outputs from their very conception was expected to be key to make interactions denser and more dynamic and to achieve a greater fit between the supply and demand of knowledge. This concern was tackled through different means and activities, including:
a) The exchange on a regular basis between the researchers in charge of the papers included in Block II (Specific Technical Issues) and III (Forum-related Challenges) and
13 officials responsible for negotiating the issues (e.g., members of the FTAA’s Negotiation Groups). In the first case two teleconferences gathering the coordination unit, researchers and public sector officials were held to identify policy and negotiation needs and therein precisely define research priorities. In the second case, the focus and specific content of reports was defined through a iterative process of consultation and exchange of ideas with relevant negotiators. b) The implementation of the novel write-shop methodology to jointly develop the research proposal between LATN and the General Secretariat of the Andean Community of Nations submitted (and approved) to the PGTF (G-77) to conduct technical analyses on trade in services. While primarily conceived for the crafting of the proposal, the methodology was later extended to the whole process of developing the research agreed upon.
PROJECT OUTPUTS AND DISSEMINATION
Included below there are a list and a self-assessment of the project’s outputs. However, and before getting into a detailed account, it is noteworthy to highlight the project’s dissemination strategy and efforts, since they were a central part of LATN’s means to achieve its goals and implied quite a substantial workload for the Coordination Unit of the project.
Dissemination
Dissemination of outputs was considerably transformed if compared with the previous project (LATN I). While new products continued to be distributed throughout the region and in North America and Europe via both printed and electronic forms, the Coordination Unit fine-tuned the list of recipients and individually contacted relevant negotiators and policy-makers in order to deliver them particular outputs. Briefly stated, this efforts included:
A very focused and continuous effort to contact public officials. The main target were mid- level rank public officials systematically involved in the negotiation process, in the crafting of the agenda and in the day-to-day formulation of trade policy. The purpose of this effort was to get those officials better acquainted of LATN’s goals and activities, to stimulate their substantive involvement (e.g., providing inputs for defining the content of the research work and training activities), and to get their feedback on the network’s products and suggestions about its future endeavors. More than two hundred policy-makers and negotiators from throughout the region were so far personally approached and currently they interact systematically with LATN. The distribution of research products –both Policy Briefs and Working Papers- was a key factor to facilitate this process.
A new effort to reach key stakeholders outside the public policy arena. Just to illustrate, LATN participated during the last year in a large event organized by the Argentine Chamber of Exporters (CERA) and the Bank Boston Foundation in November. Also, LATN participated in the Early Morning Debates with high level officials of the Consejo Argentino para las Relaciones Internacionales (CARI) as well as in meetings organized by Oxfam and the FTAA-Peru Commission (Comisión ALCA-Peru). In other words, civil society organizations and private sector instances became an increasingly important target of LATN outreach and dissemination efforts towards the end of the project.
A new practice of meetings between the members of the Coordination Unit and higher level officials was set in motion to both increase the exposure of the network and give further impulse to the access to lower-level cadres. The practice included trips of the Project Director and Deputy Director to Chile and Peru. In the first case, officials involved included Ricardo Lagos (Jr.) (Director of Multilateral Economic Affairs, DIRECON), Victor Tokman (Senior Advisor to the Executive Branch), Alicia Frohman (Director of FTAA/North America
14 Division, DIRECON), Pablo Lazo (Advisor to the Director General, DIRECON), Francisco Prieto (Official in charge of Services in Negotiations with the United States), Andrea Butelmann and Sebastián Sáez (Advisors to the Ministry of Finance), and Raúl Sáez (Advisor to the Ministry of Economy). In the case of Peru, meetings involved Ambassador Allan Wagner Tizón (Minister of Foreign Relations), Daniel Schydlowsky (Advisor to the President), Minister Elard Escala Martínez (Director of the Asia and Oceania Division, Ministry of Foreign Relations), Ambassador José Antonio García Belaúnde (Chief Advisor to the General Secretariat of the Andean Community María Ezperanza Dangond (Proyect Manager, Andean Community), Victoria Elmore (Advisor to the Ministry of External Trade and Tourism) and Ambassador Elizabeth Astete (Director of Economic Organisms, Ministry of Foreign Relations). This trip also included high-level representatives of the private sector and NGOs such as Samuel Gleiser (President ALCA-Peru Commission/Chamber of Commerce from Lima), Juan Pendavis (President, PROMPEX), Alfonso Velasquez Tuesta (President, Peruvian Exporters Association), Ambassador Juan Velit (Executive Director, Peruvian Agency of Cooperation), Martha Arias (Official in charge of Policies for South America, INTERMON-OXFAM) and Ekard Wild (Ebert Foundation Representative in Peru);
This dissemination strategy required a daily hands-on attitude towards the task involved: identification of officials, establishment of contacts, presentation of the network, distribution of materials, follow-up of links established, support to researchers for the development of their own links, up-dating officials on LATN’s activities and agenda, etc. It had highly rewarding payoffs, as those approached were responsive and enthusiastic -even providing feedback on content in several cases. Moreover, there were also positive spillover effects as more colleagues are requesting materials. So even if this new strategy resulted in a demanding workload for the coordination unit, at the same time it brought about positive pay-offs in terms of LATN’s exposure and out-reach. To briefly illustrate this point, out of those efforts the approach by the Central Bank from Ecuador and the General Secretariat of the Andean Community of Nations to work together emerged. In the case of some products, such as the LATN Policy Briefs, officials moved from just acknowledging their reception to making comments, asking inclusion in the mailing list, letting us know that they would distribute the materials and asking information about how to more actively engage in LATN endeavors. This explains why some issues of LATN Serie Brief and LATN Working Papers ran out of stock, showing the interest generated by the network’s research outputs as well as the success of the task of circulating and disseminating them.
LATN incorporated a new dissemination product, the Selection of News, which proved to be an excellent vehicle for introducing LATN to a broader audience –including businessman/ woman, congressmen/woman and students-. By July 31st 2004, the recipients’ list included about 2,000 people from all over the region.
The growing importance and size of LATN’ mailing lists resulted in the need to re-classify the data included. Categories were thus created in direct relation with the profile of the recipients of LATN products: academics, policy makers, negotiators, civil society members, among the most important.
As part of the dissemination strategy, the role of the website was enhanced, in order to make it a source of high level research and up dated information on trade matters. It was a key vehicle for the dissemination of the activities and products of LATN, and it has been redesigned in order to improve the organization of increasing information and make the site a very user-friendly instrument (see more below).
LATN Plenary Meetings were another means to disseminate LATN outputs. The Coordination Unit conceived the Fourth Plenary Meeting (Santiago de Chile, December 2003) as an excellent instance to foster interaction between researchers and policy makers and, therefore, explicitly sought to increase the latter’s participation as much as possible.
15 The agenda of the meeting reflected this aim to a large extent, as 13 of the 49 people included as panelists, discussants or chairs were trade agreements negotiators and 9 belonged to international organizations that usually reach those circles (ECLAC, UNCTAD, World Bank, etc.). This was a clear departure from previous meetings in which primarily LATN researchers set the agenda. Moreover, the meeting allowed a rich and fluid exchange of ideas between scholars and public officials not only in the sessions scheduled, but also when participants gathered outside the session rooms. It was thus praised by several of the participants because of the climate provided for open and free debate. The inclusion of a key-note speaker from the policy field for the luncheon was guided by the same goal. Although several names were initially considered, Senator Alejandro Foxley from Chile was finally chosen. This decision was mainly grounded in that he is a prestigious policy-maker while having, at the same time, a strong academic vocation (never formally pursued). However, success in this regard posed also new tensions to be addressed. There was some concern by the end of the meeting that the academic debate had been somehow relegated by the policy discussion. The question was addressed in the Steering Committee meeting held the day after the Plenary ended, where some suggestions to deal with this issue were put forward.
The following LATN Plenary Meeting could not successfully address such a challenge. The meeting was held in November 13-14, 2003, in Mexico and was an opportunity to fine tune research in progress and asses governance issues with the Steering Committee. The Coordination Unit and the Steering Committee agreed that this meeting was not up to expectations, not allowing to the network to properly take advantage of it to provide an academic-policy maker space for reflection. Reasons can be ascribed to both work overload of the Coordination Unit and local organization deficits. As a result, the Steering Committee took up the issue of plenary meetings and decided to give them a more “dissemination” utility thorough its use for getting more visibility. In this sense, it was agreed that the LATN Plenary Meetings will become Annual LATN Meetings, not devoted mainly to LATN researchers themselves, but to give visibility to LATN works , researchers and themes in the region.
Finally, in order to optimize the use of resources and improve the communication and reach of the network with policy makers and negotiators, a decision was reached to discontinue the printed version of the newsletter while keeping its presentation through electronic means. One of the main arguments to do so was that by the time the information got printed, it was already old since it contents were more procedural and agenda related (news) than substantive.
In sum, LATN implemented a broad scale effort to reach policy-makers and negotiators, to search for the best way of present and shape its products, and to eventually create new outputs to respond to increasing demands. In this light, LATN has become not only a generator of knowledge through its research endeavors, but also a broker of relevant information among the interested community. The success of such strategy can be assessed by:
The increasing and more fluid participation of policy-makers (the network’s main target beneficiaries) in LATN events (for instance, in the Plenary meeting held in Chile, half of the participants were mid- and high-level rank negotiators and policy makers);
Policy makers’ increasing interest in the network’s research work, moving in many cases from being passive recipients of LATN products to a more proactive attitude by the end of the project that included asking for particular products, suggesting research topics, etc.;
Increasing participation of private sector representatives and organizations of civil society in LATN’s activities;
16 The number of hits the website records;
Beneficiaries’ much more intense use of LATN products, such as the Selection of News that gets more than 2,000 concerned recipients.
Outputs
Information Sharing and Dissemination
Reports (electronic publications)
The following reports (some under the designation of “working papers”) were elaborated during the project. They were made available in the project’s website (www.latn.org.ar) and distributed electronically to the project’s mailing list. Also, a copy of them was displayed at Conferences and Seminars in order for attendants to sign-in for a copy.
• Los países del Mercosur frente a las negociaciones comerciales: un ejercicio de elaboración de escenarios. Pedro da Motta Veiga. LATN Working Paper #12 • La Batalla sobre estándares laborales en la economía global. Richard Freeman. LATN Working Paper # 14 • Un punto de vista desde los países en vías de desarrollo sobre la liberalización de tarifas y las barreras comerciales. Patricio Meller, LATN Working Paper # 15 • Manual para una negociación efectiva en las negociaciones sobre servicios. Hacia una evaluación de los compromisos conforme al Articulo XIX Francisco Prieto. LATN Working Paper #16 • Los países centromericanos y la negociación multilateral de servicios. Umberto Mazzei. LATN Working Paper #17 • Negociando en conjunto en Cancún: las coaliciones de los países en desarrollo. Diana Tussie y Amrita Narlikar, LATN Working Paper #18 • Los cambios estructurales del sector de agroalimentos en Brasil y sus efectos en el comercio y la competencia. Marcos Jank, LATN Working Paper #19 • El proceso de formulacion de la politica de comercio en las Américas: lecciones de la experiencia mexicana. Antonio Ortiz Mena. LATN Working Paper #20 • Protección de los derechos de los trabajadores a través de los acuerdos comerciales: una guía analítica. Sandra Polasky. LATN Working Paper #21 • Enlaces y descenlaces en los senderos del ALCA. Diana Tussie e Ignacio Labaqui. LATN Working Paper #22 • La negociación agrícola en el ALCA: Análisis de la experiencia de México en el NAFTA. Carlos Espinal. LATN Report on the FTAA Negotiations. • Lecciones y experiencias en vistas a la negociación agrícola en el ALCA: el Tratado de Libre comercio entre Chile y los Estados Unidos. Carlos Espinal. LATN Report on the FTAA Negotiations. • Políticas comerciales en la agricultura: el caso de Brasil y Estados Unidos. Carlos Espinal. LATN Report on the FTAA Negotiations. • Liberalización y negociación de los servicios financieros: el caso de la CAN. Marco Baquero y Carlos de la Torre. LATN Report on the FTAA Negotiations. • ALCA, comercio de servicios financieros, estabilidad financiera y crecimiento económico. Marco Baquero y Carlos de la Torre, LATN Report on the FTAA Negotiations. • Estrategias de integración y liberalización de los servicios financieros en la CAN a partir de las experiencias de la Unión Europea y el TLCAN. Marco Baquero y Carlos de la Torre, LATN Report on the FTAA Negotiations • Reconocimiento versus armonización de medidas prudenciales: los beneficios de la liberalización del comercio de servicios finacieros en un solo sentido. Marco Baquero y Carlos de la Torre, LATN Report on the FTAA Negotiations
17 • Acceso a mercados en el ALCA: la complejidad de la agenda de negociación. José Antonio Cerro Castiglione, LATN Report on the FTAA Negotiations.
Special Reports (distributed electronically)
• The Coordination Unit elaborated an Annotated Guide of Trade Academic Journals (both in Spanish and English) and distributed it among its members and other relevant stakeholders.
• The Coordination Unit concluded the Report on LATN Fourth Plenary Meeting (40 pages long), held in Mexico City, November 13-14, 2003. The Report was edited and distributed among LATN’s members and users of its products.
Hard Paper Publications
Books
• Trade Policy Reforms in Latin America. Multilateral Rules and Domestic Institutions. Edited by Miguel Lengyel and Vivianne Ventura-Dias. PalgraveMacmillan, UK, 2004.
LATN Policy Briefs
• TRIPs y Salud Pública: los desafíos post-Doha. Vanessa Lowenstein and Gabriel Bottino. # 13 • Indicaciones Geográficas: buscando un lugar en el mundo. Cintia Quiliconi. #14 • La liberalización de los servicios de salud: tres desafíos para los países latinoamericanos. Soledad Salvador. #15 • Latinoamérica frente a la negociación multilateral sobre subvenciones. Graciela Palacios. #16 • Organismos Genéticamente Modificados: desafíos para América Latina. María Laura Escuder. #17 • La liberalización de los servicios educativos: tendencias y desafíos para América Latina. Marcela Gajardo y Francisca Gómez. # 18
LATN’s Memoir
At the beginning of the second year of this project, the fifth of LATN’s life, the Coordination Unit decided to elaborate a brochure exposing how LATN came into being, its objectives, activities, products and how the network evolved and grew. The LATN Memoir documented the work and ideas of the people and organizations that made LATN possible. In this sense, this Memoir constitutes more than a dissemination brochure –which no doubt it is. It is also an endeavor to seed an institutional shared memory of what LATN has accomplished.
Selection of News
The Coordination Unit launched a new product during this project, namely, the Trade News Selection Service. The product was designed in October 2002, tested in the last week of November and made available to the whole LATN mailing list by early December 2002. It provides a selection of news on international trade and negotiations that are thematically distributed in four sections: Opinion; WTO/International; The Americas; and Mercosur. News are selected from the most well known papers in the world (such as Financial Times, UK; Gazeta Mercantil, Brazil; La República, Uruguay; and La Nación, Argentina), presented in its original language (Spanish, English or Portuguese) and put in a shorter format whenever they are too long. Its distribution is weekly and its length never exceeds ten one-side pages. The objective of this new product is two-fold. On one hand, to map out what the influential media is
18 highlighting on trade developments; on the other, to extend the reach of LATN to some actors that are not directly related to trade policy making in Latin America but need, however, to be informed, such as congressmen/women. The extremely positive way this product has been received by the targeted beneficiaries is so far beyond expectations.
Web site
A particular effort was made to turn the website into a pivotal vehicle to disseminate LATN’s outputs and to invigorate the diffusion of the network’s mission and endeavors (activities) during this project. It included:
• A general redesign of the website in order to make it more user-friendly; • Electronic access to all the network’s research outputs; and • the development of two on-line information tools, which we called “Monitoring Trade Conflicts” and “Policing Trade Barriers”.
Knowledge creation
LATN adopted a novel approach to research in Latin America not only in terms of the perspective to tackle down substantive issues but in that it has bridged an ancillary gap between academic and policy making circles. therefore, in terms of knowledge creation, LATN has brought about problem-oriented research that was underdeveloped in the region up to then. In this sense, as explained in the Project Design and Implementation section, LATN has adopted as work methodology that heavily relies on the inclusion policy makers and negotiators in the definition of the problem to be addressed. in order to enhance the relevance of research in terms of policy priorities. Of course, this has meant to closely work with researchers in order to preserve academic’s rigor while addressing policy needs at the same time. Several means were employed to make operational this inter-dependency between academics and policy makers, including:
Fluid communication between the Coordination Unit and the policy community in order to better shape the research agenda;
The generation of small independent spaces where academics could meet policy makers to discuss research design, specific contents, work progress and final outcomes such as write-shops (see Project Design and Implementation for details). These are meetings which requires the active engagement of recipients in all the stages of the elaboration of products, from its initial conceptualization to its final specific content. Very often they take the form of meetings where participants are asked to participate in the elaboration of terms of reference for a given research endeavor, to give advice on the structure of the research and what is the relevant information or evidence to be gathered by the researcher, etc..
The organization of breakfast meetings with relevant policy makers as an additional way to bridge research and policy around particular issues. These meetings resemble the cluster meetings LATN usually organizes, although bringing into discussion issues related to, but not directly addressed by LATN research work. They provide an ambit for researchers to be exposed to alternative approaches while fostering interaction with relevant members of the policy community. For instance, the presentation by Andrea Goldstein (Senior Economist, OECD) on subsidies, tackled through a detailed discussion of the Bombardier/Embraer dispute in the WTO, raising awareness about some points that merit further research. This brought useful conceptual and empirical insights for LATN’s research work, and provided policy-makers a “learning and quiet space” to address the complexities of some issues. In addition to the above, breakfast meetings included “The Impact of the Argentine Crisis on the WTO-FTAA Negotiations” by
19 Thomas O’Keefe (Associate Researcher, North-South Center, Miami), “Global Governance and the United Nations” by John Groom (International Relations Professor, Rutherford College, University of Kent), and “Regionalism and the Activism of Civil Society: Is there a Role for the State?” by Jean Grugel (Reader in Politics, University of Shiefield);
The generation of large events where academics and policy makers can share a saying over the same problem, such as plenary meetings;
The working out with researchers the presentation format of research findings in order to make them user-friendly for a larger interested community
Another aspect of LATN knowledge creation was the impact LATN outputs had in terms of curricula and bibliography. Most of the researchers involved with LATN have highlighted the fact that they incorporated the topics LATN was working on in their courses and that they included in the bibliography several working papers as required readings. Also, some Policy Briefs were included in seminars as an element to trigger the debate. Some illustrations of this are the cases of Francisco Prieto, who included the Handbook on Services Negotiations in his course at Georgetown University, Alan Fairlie who included LATN’s book as readings for his course, Miguel Lengyel, Diana Tussie and Valentina Delich who extensively included LATN working papers in their classes, etc..
Finally, it should not overlooked that the work conducted on Trade and Labor Standards (Block 1 of the project) is another instance of knowledge generation in terms of novel ways to deal with the issue of improving standards through trade agreements or not as well as of new working methods to build social and political support for the substantive recommendations emerging from research work.
Training
During this project, LATN was involved in training activities, both internal to the network and external on trade matters. Three aspects must be noted in this regard: first, training courses were moved to smaller countries because in the larger ones other international organizations’ initiatives were underway and the supply of courses in universities increased notably in the last two years. Yet, when other international organizations took the lead, LATN cooperated by offering its reach to publicize courses and instructors. Second, a strong push on internal training was launched by the end of the project with a focus on the Outcome Mapping methodology developed by IDRC’s Evaluation Unit. Its results were reflected in the elaboration of the new project rather than in this project. Third, although LATN did not devoted resources to promote thesis’ elaboration, many LATN’s senior researchers actually fueled thesis’ endeavors by younger researchers. The case of the Coordination Unit is particularly telling in this regard as its members supervised 7 thesis during the last two years, most of them awarded with the highest qualification.
In terms of external training, LATN supported the course carried out in Guatemala in February 2002, named “FTAA and OMC: Implications and Challenges for the Small Economies of the Hemisphere”. The organizing institution was ASIES and LATN co-sponsored the course with the World Bank, the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Ford Foundation. The content and instructors of the course were as follows: • Current situation of FTAA negotiations and the launching of a new WTO round; • Key topics for small economies: agriculture, trade in services, intellectual property and investments; • Assessment of the negotiating capacity of hemispheric small countries and recommendations to improve it;
20 • Instructors: Patricio Contreras, Jaime Granados, Michael Finger, César Parga, Carlos Murillo and Maryse Robert.
Finally, in terms of internal training, the Coordination Unit of LATN and IDRC Regional Office in Montevideo organized a two-day meeting in Montevideo (1-2 April, 2004) to work out the first seven steps of the Outcome Mapping Methodology. This methodology is very useful when it comes to better define the project’s partners and targets, establish more accurately its vision and mission and design strategies to carry out the mission and objectives. The methodology was found very advantageous and actually used to develop the new project submitted to IDRC; furthermore, a commitment was taken to implement its lasts steps, namely monitoring and assessment of impact, in the new project (2004-2007).
CAPACITY BUILDING
The project no doubt had capacity building effects on LATN’s institutional strength and management/administrative skills as well as on the research skills and networking capacity of researchers involved. Come effects were planned and designed for and sometimes were the positive by-product of the network’s progress in different areas of activity. It should be notes as the most relevant the following:
LATN took part in different ways in the initiatives fostered by IDRC to get a better understanding on two issues directly related to the working of the network, namely, the influence of research on policy and the management of knowledge networks. Regarding the first issue, LATN was selected by the IDRC Evaluation Unit in Ottawa, headed by Fred Carden, as one of the several cases in which the influence of research on public policy was reviewed by external consultants. At the same time, LATN’s Director was chosen to examine the case of the G-24. The goal of this initiative was to address three main aspects: i.e., (i) what constitutes public policy influence in IDRC’s experience, (ii) to what degree and in what ways IDRC-supported research has influenced such a policy and (iii) the factors that affect the potential of those projects to exert influence. The results were presented at the workshop “Influence of Research on Public Policy” held in Montevideo, Uruguay in December 5-6, 2002 and were further discussed at the Fourth Plenary Meeting of LATN (Santiago de Chile, December 2003) where a special session on the issue was organized. These results were extremely useful for LATN in that they allowed the Coordination Unit and some of the network’s members to achieve theoretical and conceptual tools applicable to their own work in LATN; to confront LATN’s experience with parallel networks; and to get an alternative external view to enrich internal perceptions.
The project carried out jointly with the Regional Office of IDRC for Latin America (LACRO) the workshop on Managing Knowledge Networks in Montevideo, Uruguay, December 5-6, 2003. As already noted, the workshop gathered experts, people in charge of managing several IDRC-sponsored networks and other networks, and IDRC staff. The tasks of LATN’s Coordination Unit during the meeting included the coordination and facilitation of the workshop activities, while actively participating in and guiding the substantive discussion. The Coordination Unit was also in charge of elaborating afterwards the report of the meeting. The workshop delivered extremely insightful remarks and conclusions of central aspects for improvement the management of knowledge networks, including the use of incentives to effectively engage stakeholders, the organizational design of knowledge networks, and the way to monitor performance and results.
The Coordination Unit carried out a special internal retreat in Buenos Aires, March 6-7, 2004 to discuss new directions for LATN’s management and structure as part of an strategy of long-term growth and sustainability as well as substantive research needs that the network should address. In addition to the CU, the meeting involved the network’s Steering
21 Committee, IDRC officials from Ottawa and Montevideo related to LATN and an external expert. The Coordination Unit presented a paper for discussion. The retreat allowed discussing many fundamental aspects of LATN’s organizational structure, management practices and procedural criteria. In doing so, it proved extremely fruitful to provide suggestions and recommendations about the future strategic, organizational directions of the network., including those bearing directly with sustainability. Most of these insights fed the proposal submitted in July to IDRC for the next phase of LATN.
The network served to enhance the capacity of researchers and policy makers within several Latin American countries to provide meta-analyses and syntheses regarding different issues of international trade. In this sense, largely reflecting on the Coordination Unit constant preaching, researchers involved in LATN became fully aware of the need to produce policy-relevant research and were been able to incorporate the skills to do so through their involvement in the network’s research work. In other words, capacity-building in this regard was achieved through practice as well as to the exposure to new research criteria and techniques. That is, researchers carried out research and use findings as part of building an understanding of how to use findings. On a different front, researchers greatly enhanced their ability to communicate their findings in formats that enable policy makers to easily understand and absorb the information.
Finally, as mentioned earlier, the project served to support a younger group of scholars whose research interests were shaped in the direction of LATN´s mission. In several cases, LATN served to grant exposure to their work and launch their careers either in academic or in policy circles.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
During the project, management was able to make a quality leap with regards to the performance standards reached during the “Leading Issues....” project. While to some extent this reflected a process of learning by doing and self-reflection, improvement was also related to the incorporation and implementation of management improving methodologies and techniques.
In terms of administration, the project host institution was FLACSO/Argentina during all stages of the project cycle and therefore, there was more continuity that change with regards to all administrative aspects of the project (budgeting, funds disbursement procedures, accounting, internal financial reports, etc.). Yet, improvement must be noted as FLACSO administration implemented an on-line system to consult projects’ financial cash flow and budget execution. Some changes also occurred in the staffing of the project near its conclusion as Tracy Tuplin left its position as Communication Director she held from the “Leading Issues...” project.
It must be mentioned that IDRC Regional Office in Montevideo was very helpful and collaborative during all the phases of the project (conception, implementation, and conclusion). Indeed, it provided technical support on different administrative issues (presentation of proposal, budgeting criteria, guidelines for the elaboration of technical and financial reports, etc.) as well as advice on spot aspects whenever requested by the Coordination Unit.
In terms of management, the following developments should be pointed out:
In addition to increasing decentralization of the network’s structure and operations (see Project design and implementation), the project gradually furthered more open decision- making practices. Such a move hinged on the increasing participation of the Steering Committee and the expansion of its attributions and obligations concerning both substance (i.e., definition of the research agenda, proposals of researchers, etc.) and procedures
22 (dissemination criteria, outreach strategy, etc.). This management change was formalized in the new proposal submitted to IDRC last July;
The implementation of new instruments to monitor and assess the impact of the project’s products on decisions (See Impact below);
The elaboration of a “mid-term” capacity statement to address the long-term sustainability of the network that included:
- An assessment of LATN’s situation in terms of its research, audience, market and competition; - A review of options by analyzing the impact of various scenarios (such as increasing publicity); and - A discussion of LATN’s strategy for sustainability;
As part of this exercise, a preliminary version of a media plan for LATN was crafted. The plan envisaged a media advisor to:
- Promote LATN research to a broader audience, beyond its present primary focus on Latin America; - Enhance the exposure for LATN researchers and their work in appropriate realms; and - Build new relationships between academia and the media.
The incorporation of new methodologies toward the end of the project for improving project’s management (i.e, using systematic processes and reducing guesswork) in all its dimensions, from conception to evaluation. To that end, a two-day capacity building exercise on the use and implementation of the Outcome Mapping Methodology was carried out in Montevideo, April 1-2, 2004. In that exercise LATN’s Coordination Unit worked with IDRC’s specialist, Helen Raij on the phase of Intentional Design of that methodology (i.e., Vision, Mission, Boundary Partners, Outcome Challenges, Progress Markers, Strategy Maps and Organizational Practices) for its application in the incoming stage of LATN.
IMPACT
A growing concern during the project was to increase its impact on policy decisions as well as the project’s capacity to keep track of such influence. The IDRC’s sponsored workshop “Influence of Research on Public Policy” was very illuminating in this sense in that it, first, shed light on the differences between outreach and impact and, second, highlighted the intricacies of detecting instances of actual influence due to a variety of reasons (the nature of the policy making process, the relationship between academia and policy circles in different settings, etc.).
This triggered an internal discussion in LATN as to the best means to identify and assess the policy impacts the project might have. During the “Leading Issues...., project, several indicators were used as evidence that LATN products had achieved some success in reaching policy- making circles and were started to be used as inputs in the process of trade negotiations and policy formulation. These indicators were still used during this project as evidence essentially of outreach impact. They included: - The increasing number of hits (about 120 per day towards the end of the project) the network’s website recorded, which came mostly from Latin America, Geneva and Washington; - The increasing number of requests (about 350 during the length of the project) to the coordination unit for both LATN working papers and briefing papers, half of which came from negotiators and public officers, mostly from Latin America.
23 - The instances of advisory task to negotiators and policy makers in which LATN’s members were involved. During the project those instances took place in Argentina, Peru, Brazil, Costa Rica. Colombia, Ecuador and Chile. - Anecdotal evidence that LATN’s research products had informed decisions or policies. It included the policy uptake of some of those products (i.e, Venezuelan position on export subsidies) or government use of the network’s research findings (i.e., to fence off protectionist pressures as in the case of the Argentine footwear sector).
As “The Latin American Trade Agenda...” project was set in motion, the above indicators, while providing some proxy to LATN reach and impact, were deemed too “soft” or too scattered as to have some degree of conclusiveness. Therefore, in addition to a series of actions geared to make thicker and more systematic interactions and exchanges with negotiators and policy- makers (see Project outputs and dissemination above), the project developed and implemented new instruments to keep track and assess the outreach and impact of the network’s products. It consisted of a simple performance index including information discriminated in two main dimensions (requests for products from people that have not been targeted, according to their professional field and geographical origin; and public officials’ assessment of LATN products and the use they make of them). Data was gathered through a survey, the first conducted in August 2002 and the second in March 2003 and the last one in December 2003. The latter was the most extensive, including 125 of the about 250 policy-makers being systematically reached by the Coordination Unit and receiving LATN products. Results are the following:
Autonomous requests for LATN products (97 responses) Latin America North America Europe Other TOTAL Academics 15 (28%) 8 (29%) 4 (33%) 2 (50%) 29 (30%) Public sector 21 (40%) 11 (39%) 5 (42%) 1 (25%) 38 (39%) Private sector 10 (22%) 2 (0,7%) 0 0 12 (12%) Other 7 (13%) 7 (25%) 3 (25%) 1(25%) 18 (12%) TOTAL 53 (100%) 28 (100%) 12 (100%) 4 (100%) 97 (100%)
Reach and influence of LATN products in policy circles (82 responses) 1. Knowledge about LATN a. Personal references 33 40% b. Trough the website 22 27% c. LATN products 27 33% 2. Interest in LATN products a. Yes 75 91% b. Partial 7 9% c. None 0 0% 3. Reasons of interest a. Subject/focus 22 27% b. Format 20 24% c. Quality of analysis 34 42% d. Other 6 7% 4. Use of LATN products a. Always 15 18% b. Frequently 37 45% c. Occasionally 30 37% d. Never 0 0% 5. To what end (more than one option can be chosen) a. Consultation 43 52% b. Decision-making 34 41% c. Other 5 6%
24
The above results, when compared with the first and second measurements, indicate that LATN was able to make progress in achieving influence in the policy arena during the course of the project. Towards the end of the project, it was decided to refine this set of tools through the use of the instruments provided by the Outcome Mapping Methodology developed by the IDRC’s Evaluation Unit. Obviously, the application of this methodology will bear fruit in the next phase of LATN.
TRANSITION PERIOD: DECEMBER 2003-JUNIO 2004
By late year 2003, conversations between the Project Director and IDRC to carry out a third phase of the project were underway, posing tentatively the month of April 2004 to initiate that phase. The coordination unit then submitted to IDRC a plan of activities to be undertaken during the transition period between the first and second stages of the project, which was opportunely approved. Expenditures in that period were to be funded with savings obtained by the coordination unit during the second phase (See Financial Report submitted in December 2003). In March it was realized the need to obtain an additional extension because of several reasons: the decision to carryout LATN internal retreat, whose inputs on network organization, procedures and strategy would feed the new research proposal to be submitted to IDRC; and the decision agreed between the Coordination Unit and IDRC representatives from the Montevideo Office to fine-tune the first draft of the project proposals by giving greater weight to the issue of development. In line with these circumstances, the activities carried out during the period were as follows:
Administration and Management of the Network
The coordination unit continued to administer and manage the research network during the period December 2003-June 2004. In addition to the daily activities required to keep LATN working at full steam (administration of resources, internal and external communication, dissemination of outputs, etc.) the coordination unit took advantage of that time to give shape to several new initiatives started to be considered towards the end of the second year of the project. These include:
The organization of the Internal Retreat already mentioned to get new insights on LATN organizational practices and structure and long-term strategy;
The identification of new researchers and institutions to be incorporated to the third phase of LATN. This activity implied the identification of potential new members, the establishment of contacts in some cases and the definition of the nature and content of their involvement. Emphasis was placed in this sense in strengthening the standing of the network in countries of the region where its reach is weak, in particular the smallest countries (Bolivia, Paraguay and the Caribbean area). Some of these contacts have been included in the proposal submitted to IDRC.
The definition of the new role of the steering committee, its attributions and rights and the mechanisms for a workable relationships with the Coordination Unit.
The definition of the criteria, procedures and mechanisms to fully carry out the process of decentralization of LATN in semi-autonomous nodes in Peru for the Andean countries, Costa Rica for the Central American countries and Brazil. The include several exchanges of information and ideas with the researchers that will be responsible for the coordination of the nodes.
25 The training of the Coordination Unit in new methodologies for the formulation of the proposals (which were employed to elaborate the one submitted to IDRC in July) as well as for monitoring performance and the impact of research outputs. This include a training session carried out in early April in Montevideo in which the Coordination Unit and IDRC expert attended. Preparation of research studies
The coordination reviewed and edited the research work originally planned and still in process to ensure its conclusion during the transition period. This included the Third Report on Agriculture and the Fourth Report on Trade in Services within the Third Block of the project.
Preparation of the research studies (elaboration of TORs, commissioning of papers, monitoring and reviewing of research work, timely delivery of the studies) for the Third IADB-LATN Meeting, and the organization of this meeting in Villa La Angostura, Argentina, April 16-17 2004. This task included the elaboration and distribution of the report of the meeting.
Preparation of research proposal
During the transition period, the coordination prepared the project proposal for the third phase of LATN, which was submitted to IDRC on July 2004. This entailed a process in which several drafts were elaborated following very useful comments and suggestions made by IDRC’s Regional Office at Montevideo, Uruguay as well as the shifts of research emphases decided along the process of crafting the proposal. In this regard, particular relevant was the contribution of Andrés Rius. This process of formulation was opened to LATN’s members, many of whom submitted proposals for specific topics to be addressed and suggestions for the whole document. A central goal in this endeavor was to enhance the development relevance of future research, making that issue the main point of entry of the activities to be carried out during LATN III.
Preparation of books
This was the most demanding and time-consuming task the coordination unit carried out during the transition period. It entailed, first, the elaboration of book proposals for submission to four different publishers with the fulfillment of all the paper work required. Such proposals were submitted to Routledge, Ashgate, Palgrave/MacMillan and Lynne Rinner. The process was crowned with success as the prestigious Palgrave/MacMillan accepted to publish the two volumes, one edited by Diana Tussie including LATN’s issue studies and the other edited by Miguel Lengyel and Vivianne Ventura including the country case studies. It also entailed the revision of the papers to be included, a extremely hard work as it required in virtually all cases the re-writing of some sections of the studies, the incorporations of changes in their structure, the updating of data and a meticulous editing and stylizing work. Some of the authors were involved in the process which was, so far, also successful. Indeed, Palgrave/Macmillan approved the manuscripts for the issue volume, after careful revision by an external and anonymous reader. The manuscripts for the country case studies book will be submitted during the upcoming month of May. The volumes are scheduled to be on the shelves by the end of this year.
OVERALL ASSESSMENT
Although this project was a two-year length, the network it sustained –LATN- is at this moment almost six years. In this sense, success in developing a knowledge network like LATN and the
26 production of high quality research work generated two different kinds of challenges. On one hand, a challenge related to the network’s proper organizational form, working and evolution and on the other, a challenge to the analytical perspectives and tools adopted to further research on trade topics. Accordingly, assessing this project implies to evaluate two different dimensions, namely, the project’s fulfillment of goals as stated in the grant memorandum as well as the extent to which the network is a valuable tool for knowledge production and diffusion.
In terms of the first yardstick, the project has meant a great workload for the Coordination Unit, as clearly suggested by the large amount of tasks involved in its full implementation. In this light, effort has been great and time looked a little bit stretched. Yet, judging for its results and payoffs in terms of research production, dissemination and administration, the time, effort and funs involved were appropriate.
In terms of LATN’s development, the network has gone a long way to fulfill its original mission and has evolved into the fastest growing research and policy oriented network in Latin America in the trade field. It is fair to say that LATN is today a “mature” research network in the sense of crystallizing a numerous, committed and active membership and being a source of new initiatives. More specifically, LATN exhibits high levels of productivity and has significantly contributed to generate applied knowledge in the trade field from a regional perspective. It has built a strong identity and sense of belonging and has managed to be ready to respond when policy windows open and new policy challenges emerge. The new emphasis the network will give to the development-trade link in its following phase is just one example of its capacity to uptake those challenges timely and wholeheartedly.
In this sense, LATN is highly consequential and embodies a significant value added within a Latin American context in which substantive knowledge deficits, institutional weaknesses and scarce resources are sometimes the rule rather than the exception, largely justifying time and funds devoted to its development and consolidation.
27 ANNEX
Project-related conferences
2002
• February 16-17, Washington D.C., USA, IADB, Meeting of the IADB Evaluation Department on Integration Strategies; Participant: Diana Tussie. • March 6-8, Santiago de Chile, “Seminar on Globalization”, ECLAC/World Bank, Participant: Diana Tussie. • March 13, Mexico City, El Colegio de Mexico, “Conference on Regionalism”, Participant: Diana Tussie. • March 21, Washington DC, USA, IADB, Meeting of the IADB Evaluation Department on Integration Strategies, presentation of evaluation results on integration strategies and inputs into trade strategies; Participant: Diana Tussie. • March 22, Washington DC, visit to the World Bank and World Bank Institute to discuss past training activities, potential new ones and areas for potential cooperation in research activities; Participant: Diana Tussie. • March 25-27, New Orleans, USA, International Studies Association; Participants: Diana Tussie, Marcelo de Paiva Abreu, Antonio Ortiz Mena. • April 8-9, New York, USA, The New School of Social Research, Graduate Program in International Affairs, seminar “Economic Management and Political Collapse in Argentina: Interpreting the Past to Build for the Future”; Participant: Diana Tussie. • April 15, Santiago de Chile, FLACSO, seminar “Regional Impact of Argentine and Venezuelan Crises”; Participant: Diana Tussie, Vivianne Ventura. • April 18-19, Montevideo. Uruguay, IDRC, Research Scope Meeting “Internationalizing Competition Policy: Developing Country Perspectives”, Participant: Miguel F. Lengyel, José Tavares de Araujo. • April 22, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Consejo Argentino para las Relaciones Internacionales, meeting on trade policy in Argentina; Participant: Diana Tussie. • April 23, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Consejo Argentino para las Relaciones Internacionales, meeting on agricultural trade negotiations; Participant: Miguel F. Lengyel. • April 23-25, Montevideo, Uruguay, IDRC, Meeting “Latin American and Caribbean Countries and Trade in Health Services: Research Priorities in Addressing Emerging Policy Challenges”; Participants: Diana Tussie, Francisco Prieto. • June 10, Great Britain, University of Oxford/Centre for Brazilian Studies, seminar “The Brazilian Automotive Industry: Perspectives on Investment Strategies and Regional Integration”, Participant: Diana Tussie, Amrita Narlikar • June 18-19, Washington DC, OAS/NetAmericas, seminar “Challenges on Key Issues for Modern Trade Agreements”; Participant: Diana Tussie, Marcelo de Paiva Abreu, Mario Marconini, José Fanelli, Mercedes Aráoz and José Tavares de Araujo. • July 9-10, Salamanca, Spain. First Latin American Congress on Political Science, University of Salamanca. Participant: Diana Tussie. • August 8-10, Lima, Peru. First Meeting of the Regional Group on the International and National Agenda for the Human Rights Work in Latin America, Lima, Institute for Legal Defense, (IDL). Participant: Diana Tussie. • August 23, buenos Aires, Argentina. Mercosur: Between the European Union and the United States. The Future of International Trade Negotiations. University of Bologna. Participants: Valentina Delich, Mercedes Botto. • September 20, Buenos Aires, Argentina. First Expert Meeting: The Link between Labor Standards and Trade, IADB-LATN. Participants: Diana Tussie, Miguel Lengyel. • October 14-15, Santiago de Chile, Chile. Latin America security issues after September 11th, FLACSO-Chile. Participant: Diana Tussie.
28 • October 11, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Management of Economic Development in the European Union, Strategies and Institutions. EU/LDC Network and the University of Bologna. Participant: Miguel Lengyel • October 24-25, Washington D.C., United States, Global Development Network (GDN) Bridging Research and Policy Project. Steering Committee Meeting. Participant: Diana Tussie. • November 22-23, Washington D.C, United States, Bridging the Divide: Toward a Consensus on Free Trade in the Americas, Inter-American Dialogue. Participants: Diana Tussie, José Tavares • November 20-21, Washington D.C., United States, Integrating the Americas, OAS. Participants: Diana Tussie, Valentina Delich, Mercedes Araoz, Antonio Ortiz Mena, Marcelo Abreu • December 5-6, Montevideo, Uruguay, The Influence of Research on Public Policy. An Evaluation Activity of IDRC. Participants: Diana Tussie, Miguel Lengyel, Tracy Tuplin • December 4-5, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Latin America Regional Seminar on Investment for Development, CUTS / NEIT. Participant: Andrés López. • December 15-16, Punta del Este, Uruguay, Forum. FTAA and Beyond: Prospects for Integration in the Americas, Inter-American Development Bank/Harvard University. Participant: Diana Tussie
2003
• January 17-20, “Bridging Research and Policy”, Global Development Network, Cairo. Participant: Diana Tussie • February 27-28, “Civilizing Globalization”, University of Lausanne and United Nations University. Participants: Ngaire Woods and Diana Tussie • April 21-22, Puebla, Mexico, “El ALCA y el futuro de la integración en las Américas”, LATN/BID-INTAL/UDLA. Participants: Antonio Ortiz Mena, Jose Cerro, Valentina Delich, Diana Tussie • *April 28-29, “Negociaciones comerciales y agricultura: ¿Buenas noticias para los pequeños productores?”, OXFAM-LATN. LATN participants: Alan Fairlie and José Manuel Villasuso. • May 9, “ Presentación del Informe del BID: Más Allá de las Fronteras: El nuevo regionalismo en América Latina. Participant: Diana Tussie • May 12-13, Buenos Aires, Argentina, CENIT/UDESA/LATN, Seminario “La agenda externa de Argentina. Participants: Daniel Chudnovsky, Valentina Delich, Diana Tussie • June 3-4, Second Meeting of the Round Table on Labor Standards. • Participants: Miguel Lengyel, Pedro da Motta Veiga, Diana Tussie. • June 19-20, Santiago de Chile, Chile. Workshop on “Instrumentos de Promoción de Exportaciones en América Latina y el Caribe”, CEPAL/Chile. Participants: Miguel Lengyel, Pedro da Motta Veiga and Diana Tussie. • June 26, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Workshop on “Trade in Health Services and GATS”, LATN and FLACSO/ Argentina. Participants: Miguel Lengyel, Cintia Quiliconi, Soledad Salvador, Diana Tussie. • July 9-11, Otawa, Canada, Workshop on “Trade in Health Services and Developing Countries”, WHO, WB, CIDA, IDRC and Health Canada/ University of Ottawa. Participant: Soledad Salvador. • September 12-13, Cancun, Mexico “Trade and Development”, LATN/ECLAC/ICST. LATN Participants: Miguel Lengyel, Vivianne Ventura Dias and Pedro da Motta Veiga. • December 5-6, Montevideo, Uruguay, Workshop “Managing Knowledge Networks”, Organized by IDRC/ FLACSO-Argentina, Participants: Miguel Lengyel and Diana Tussie. • December 11-13, Otawa, Canada, Seminar “The World Trade System: Challenges and Opportunities From a Development Perspective”, IDRC, Ottawa, Canada. Parrticipants: Pedro da Motta Veiga, Miguel Lengyel and Diana Tussie.
29
2004 • January 28-30.Workshop “Global Development Network. Fifth Annual Global Developent Conference. Understanding Reform”, GDN, New Delhi, India. LATN Participants: Diana Tussie. • February 12-13, Workshop “The Regulation of Globalization. Third Workshop”, St Catheine’s College, Great Britain, LATN Participants: Miguel Lengyel, Diana Tussie. • February 28-29, Seminar “G20 at Leaders Level? What Role for Civil Society?”, Centre for International Governance Innovation, Ottawa, Canadá. LATN Participants: Diana Tussie. • March, 2-3, Training workshop for union representatives “Challenges and Opportunities in MERCOSUR Trade Negotiations,” IADB/Intal, Buenos Aires. LATN Participants: Miguel Lengyel, Pablo Lazo. • March 17-20, “45th Annual ISA Convention”, Montreal. LATN Participants: Diana Tussie. • March 18-19, Workshop “TLC con EE.UU.: Lecciones de la Experiencia de Chile y Centroamérica,” LATN/Friedrich Ebert Foundation, Lima Peru. LATN participants: Alan Fairlie, , Francisco Prieto, Juan Manuel Villasuso. • March 26, International Seminar “Procesos de Cumbres: Gobernabilidad, seguridad y participación de las Organizaciones de la Sociedad Civil”, FLACSO-Chile, Santiago de Chile. LATN Participants: Diana Tussie. • April 5-6, Expert Informal Consultation Meeting on Post-Cancún Trade Negotiations on Agriculture, FAO, Rome. LATN Participant: Carlos Espinal • April 16-17, “Third Expert Meeting: The Link Between Labor Standards and Trade”, Latin American Trade Network (LATN)/Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), Villa La Angostura, Neuquén, Argentina. LATN Participants: Miguel Lengyel, Pedro da Motta Veiga, Diana Tussie. • May 19-21 “Learning from Crisis: Where do we go for Global Governance”, CIGI, United Nations University, LATN y University of Waterloo, Buenos Aires. LATN Participant: Diana Tussie • June 21, “Making the Most of Research. Research and the Policy Process”, IDRC, Ottawa, Canadá. LATN Participant: Diana Tussie. • June 8-9 “Breaking the Deadlock in Agricultural Trade Reform and Development: How could a Leaders’ Level G20 make a difference?”, CIGI y CGS, University College, Oxford, Great Britain. LATN Participant: Diana Tussie
30