World Trade Organization Regional Trade Policy Course

WTO REGIONAL TRADE POLICY COURSE OPENING CEREMONY
Date: August 4, 2014
Time: 14:00-15:30
Place: santralistanbul Campus, Energy Museum Seminar Room

The Opening Ceremony of the Course will be held at santralistanbul Campus on Monday, 4th of August with the participation and opening addresses of Dean Prof. Turgut Tarhanlı from BİLGİ Faculty of Law, Mrs Müge Varol Ilıcak, Deputy Director General for Agreements at the Ministry of Economy of Republic of Turkey, Mrs Janet Chakarian-Renouf, Head of the RTPC Unit at the World Trade Organization Institute for Training and Technical Cooperation.

WTO REGIONAL TRADE POLICY COURSE
Date: August 4-September 26, 2014
Place: DoubleTree by Hilton Istanbul Old Town Hotel

The 2014 edition of the “WTO Regional Trade Policy Course” for Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus countries will be held between 4 August – 26 September in Istanbul organized in partnership with Istanbul Bilgi University Faculty of Law, World Trade Organization and the Ministry of Economy of Republic of Turkey. This year’s edition marks the fifth year of strong cooperation between the above mentioned three institutions and the year 2014 has also seen a very important recent development to further strengthen the relations between İstanbul Bilgi University and the World Trade Organization. Assistant Professor Pinar Artiran, a member of BİLGİ Law Faculty and Academic Coordinator of the WTO Regional Trade Policy Course, has been admitted to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Chairs Programme and thus became one of the twenty-one WTO Chair Holders worldwide. The WTO Chairs Programme aims at supporting and promoting trade-related academic activities by universities and research institutions in developing and least-developed countries. The project of BİLGİ Faculty of Law that was awarded the WTO Chair entails establishing an operational Research Centre on International Trade and Arbitration within the period of 2014-2018. 

 The RTPC aims at deepening the participants' understanding of the functioning of the WTO, its rules, procedures and at developing their capacity to find relevant information and documents on WTO-related issues, including the use of the WTO legal texts and developing a network between the participants as well as the WTO experts and regional experts. 

Selected participants shall benefit from the education program offered by the WTO experts and the university professors. WTO experts shall provide general formation regarding the agreements and the regional academics shall deliver the regional perspective and related experience. The program is administered by Assistant  Professor Dr. Pınar Artıran from Istanbul Bilgi University Faculty of Law who has been appointed as the Academic Coordinator of the RTPC by the WTO. Associate Professor Durmuş Özdemir from the Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences will also contribute to the RTPC as regional academic. 

This course offers basic training to government officials from Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus Countries (1)  on the WTO, its Agreements and other related issues, including the Doha Development Agenda. This course is delivered, through a combination of lectures, co-lecturing with Academics and interactive exercises. The purpose is not to form specialists in each area of activity of the WTO but rather to ensure that participants are thoroughly exposed to all WTO-related matters. The selected government officials who successfully accomplish the program shall be entitled to attend to the three month Advanced Trade Policy Course in Geneva. 

Two round tables will be organized during the RTPC. Those meetings will be open to public and mainly tackle the timely issues such as “Trade Defence Instruments” and “International Trade and Dispute Settlement / Arbitration” and with the participation of eminent speakers and specialists.

(1) Turkey, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Former Yugoslav Rep. of Macedonia, Georgia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Montenegro, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.

For further information: 
Asst. Prof. Pınar Artıran (WTO Chair Holder, Academic Coordinator of the WTO Regional Trade Policy Course)
0 212 311 53 36 / pinar.artiran@bilgi.edu.tr 

WTO web pages: http://gtad.wto.org/project.aspx?prjCode=RTPC14/6