World Trade Organization partners with UWI, St. Augustine, to put together online Trade Policy Courses. Due to the pandemic, the course will be administered online in 2022, with the intention of hosting face-to-face courses in 2023 and beyond.
Details follow in this press release from the UWI:
The Institute of International Relations located at the St. Augustine Campus of The University of the West Indies (UWI IIR) will once again partner with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to deliver Trade Policy Courses, this time on a virtual platform. The UWI IIR was selected by the WTO in 2018 to be its regional partner to deliver trade policy courses for the Caribbean region for a period of three years, on the basis of a MOU renewable annually.
The first Regional Trade Policy Course (RTPC) was successfully delivered in 2019 and attracted 25 participants from some 13 Caribbean countries. COVID-19 prevented the staging of similar courses in 2020 and 2021. At the request of the WTO, UWI IIR will deliver an online course between September 12 and December 16, 2022, with a return to a modified face-to-face delivery in 2023.
Head of the WTO RTPC Unit, Ms Vonai Muyambo, expressed their eagerness to continue the partnership with the IIR at UWI St. Augustine and noted that their programmes have evolved in scope, scale, and mode of delivery during the pandemic.
According to Professor Jessica Byron-Reid, Director of The UWI IIR, the WTO presented the framework for their E-Learning Trade Policy Courses and shared videos of one currently taking place in the Asia-Pacific region. The course will consist of three instructional sessions of 3 hours per meeting per week, plus two preparation and planning meetings for the WTO and IIR staff involved.
The EL-course has a greater emphasis on the participants’ prior learning via materials that they will receive before the three weekly online sessions. The IIR and the WTO will work together on identifying regional presenters for sections of the programme and speakers for Round Tables when necessary.
A new MOU between the WTO and The UWI IIR is expected to be signed shortly.