United Nations Environment Programme
Division of Technology, Industry, and Economics
Economics and Trade Branch

CBTF Workshop on Post-Doha Issues on Trade and Environment, held back-to-back with the WTO Regional Seminar on Trade and Environment for African Countries

22 May 2003, Cape Town, South Africa

The UNCTAD and UNEP secretariats jointly organized this workshop under the UNEP-UNCTAD Capacity-Building Task Force on Trade, Environment and Development (CBTF). The workshop was held back-to-back with the WTO Regional Seminar on Trade and Environment for African Countries that ran from 19-21 May. Trade and environment officials from 21 Anglophone African countries were invited to both these events.

The CBTF workshop focused on two specific issues related to the post-Doha work programme:

(i) the integrated assessment of trade policies;
(ii) protecting and promoting traditional knowledge.

The workshop also discussed follow-up activities at the regional level to the CBTF Policy Dialogue on Promoting Production and Trading Opportunities for Organic Agricultural Products that took place in the ACP Secretariat in Brussels in February 2002. Other capacity building needs at the policy interface between trade and sustainable development were also explored, with particular reference to the Doha work programme. This will assist us in planning future CBTF activities in the region.