Industrial competitiveness

ITC provides advisory services, strengthens capacity in the public and private sectors and facilitates public-private dialogues (PPDs) to support trade and industrial competitiveness. This includes providing support to countries to formulate and strengthen holistic industrialization strategies and competition policies, develop a robust intellectual property framework and strengthen their public procurement processes.

Modern industrial policy increasingly encompasses elements such as green growth and digitalization. It is important to ensure coherence between industrial strategy and trade and investment policies to facilitate economic diversification and become more competitive in the global market, as well as align with developmental goals, such as creating a technology-based society and sustainable environmental management.

Services trade, intellectual property frameworks, competition policy, public procurement, e-commerce and digital trade frameworks, and green policy structures, are all elements to be considered in developing this holistic industrialization strategy.

In this context, ITC:

• Provides advisory support to formulate holistic industrial, trade and investment policy frameworks (at horizontal and value chain levels) taking into account development priorities, domestic challenges, and economic and social realities
• Formulates roadmaps based on the industrial strategy developed and provides support to implement policy reforms at the horizontal and at the value chain level
• Organizes public-private dialogues with stakeholders from the public, private and academic sectors, fosters inclusiveness in the policy formulation and implementation process, and identifies priority areas.

Competition policy aims to ensure markets work for consumers through the core elements of law enforcement and advocacy. Competition law enforcement deals with anti-competitive practices arising from the acquisition or exercise of undue market power by firms that harm consumers in the forms of higher prices, lower quality, limited choice, and lack of innovation.

Enforcement helps avoid situations that lead to decreased competition in markets, such as prospective anti-competitive mergers. A holistic competition law and policy protects both manufacturers and consumers and is a fundamental staple of economic recovery.

ITC enables countries to strengthen their competition policy and regulatory framework through:

• Technical expertise on existing regulatory frameworks, diagnostic analyses and needs assessments, and providing recommendations;
• Advisory support to draft and implement competition laws and regulations, establish and operationalize regional and national competition authorities, and strengthen institutional frameworks in line with international best practices;
• Facilitating informed participation of stakeholders in multilateral, regional, bilateral negotiations and negotiations at the WTO, including support on submissions and negotiating positions on competition policy;
• Training and capacity building for officials investigating anti-competitive practices, including training materials such as toolkits and guides;
• Guiding the private sector through business guides and relevant tools, on leveraging the competition policy framework to strengthen market access.

Intellectual property (IP) is integral to fostering cross-border trade and attracting investment. Given the complexities of this topic, not all countries have up to date regulatory frameworks or the capacity to implement regulatory and institutional frameworks to effectively implement intellectual property rights.

Enhancing intellectual property frameworks and creating opportunities for knowledge-based economies will help countries become more competitive in regional and global trading markets.

In this context, ITC provides:

• Technical expertise on regional and domestic IP frameworks in line with the WTO TRIPS Agreement, WIPO Conventions and related international treaties and protocols, and recommendations on policy reforms;
• Support to stakeholders in on-going IP negotiations, including formulating negotiating positions and submissions, taking into account domestic contexts and priorities;
• Advisory support on regional and country-level regulatory and institutional frameworks governing IP law, including drafting or revising laws and regulations and related material for the effective functioning of regulatory authorities, and aligning domestic frameworks with international commitments and best practices;
• Technical guidance to prepare submissions for Geographical Indications (GI) and facilitate registration of GI for target products;
• Targeted training and capacity building for public and private sector stakeholders on international developments in relation to IP, and helping stakeholders effectively implement regional and domestic IP frameworks.

Public procurement is a significant market and an important aspect of international trade. At the multilateral level, efforts are underway to promote transparency, industrialization, and are part of the process of developing a holistic industrial strategy.

In this context, ITC provides:

• Advisory support to review existing procurement frameworks, and identify policy reforms in line with the WTO Government Procurement Agreement and international best practices;
• Technical expertise for legislative and regulatory reforms, and materials to support the functioning of regulatory authorities overseeing public procurement matters;
• Training and capacity building support for the public sector on managing an effective public procurement system, good governance practices, preventing corruption and supplier collusion, open contracting data standards, the sustainability role of public procurement systems, and e-procurement frameworks, among others;
• Training and capacity building for the private sector, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises on operating within the context of an open competitive government procurement market, which includes the development of technical briefs and related training tools.