The World Trade Organisation, in collaboration with tralac and the Universities of Pretoria and the Western Cape, presented a 5-day training course on Trade Negotiations for English-Speaking African countries in Cape Town on 11-15 May 2009. This training is designed for officials with good knowledge of the WTO Agreements or the MTS, and who serve as their Government negotiators in regional or international trade negotiations.

The Negotiating Skills Training is designed to provide participants with skills and knowledge concerning appropriate strategies and tactics for the conduct of negotiations, as well as techniques of systematic decision analysis for monitoring and managing the negotiating process. These skills are appropriate for use in both informal negotiating process, characteristic of decision-making within and between organizations, and in more formal negotiations, at both bilateral and multilateral levels.

The training aims at providing instruction in pre-negotiation planning, effective negotiation strategies and tactics, and the management of the negotiation process. Participants will apply the lessons in simulated bilateral and multilateral international negotiations.

By the end of the course participants were expected to have acquired good negotiating skills to enable them, to negotiate for their Governments in sub-regional, regional and multilateral negotiations.

This activity was held in English and formed part of the WTO Technical Assistance and Training Plan 2008-2009.