More than 750 multilateral trade related conventions are currently effective around the world. At the country level, the multitude of international agreements makes it difficult for policymakers to decide which treaties should be ratified, which ones should be ignored, and which ones have a greater impact on improving the national/regional business environment.
Out of the 750 multilateral trade conventions, ITC’s Business Environment team has identified a core group of 270 key international treaties and rules covering the full scope of international trade relations (the remainder are either outdated or have a negligible impact).
Information
Information on multilateral trade instruments is widely dispersed: some 28 different international organizations administer these instruments with little coordination amongst them. In this context, to understand what is the actual state of play for a given country (what has the country exactly ratified) is not easy. To build an informed strategy, for accession to a number of useful conventions in accordance with the country’s priorities, becomes a real challenge. ITC’s Trade Treaties Map is the map needed to navigate this rocky path. To find out more, please expand this section. ITC’s Trade Treaties Map – previously referred to as LegaCarta is designed to support improving country accession to multilateral trade rules. To find out more, please read this
PDF file.
Alternatively, you can access the
Trade Treaties Map here.
The main outcome of Trade Treaties Map is the lowering of transactional costs on international trade for companies coming into the country or doing business abroad and the enhancement of a country’s business environment.
The long term aim is to enable developing economies in particular with the process of drafting international trade rules instead of merely being a passive recipient of them. To this end, the LegaCarta technical assistance programme fosters connections between national authorities and the main international rule-making organizations to ensure that these countries also contribute their share to international trade rule-making.
Advisory Services
ITC runs the Trade Treaties Map – previously referred to as LegaCarta, a multilingual web based and capacity-building service on multilateral trade treaties designed to assist policymakers in optimizing their country's legal framework on international trade. To find out more about ITC’s Trade Treaties Map, please read this
PDF file.
Alternatively, you can access the Trade Treaties Map
here.
Training
The Trade Treaties Map is more than an online treaties management system. It also provides training on multilateral trade treaties and assessment of a country's strengths and weaknesses. Installation of the LegaCarta database in Ministries’ departments and key trade support institutions, including universities is also an option. LegaCarta provides full text of all treaties with explanatory summaries and monthly updated ratification lists. It gives a complete country report on treaty accession “on a click”. Also, each treaty can be visualized on world and regional maps so to capture at a glance where a particular country stands relatively to others regarding treaty accession
Projects
The Trade Treaties Map project works on data compiled from over 250 multilateral trade related treaties, 193 countries and 28 international rule making organisations. The project aims to achieve the following outputs.
- Capacity-building of public sector personnel in key Ministries (usually includes Trade, Finance, Environment, Transport, Justice, Foreign Affairs) on trade treaties basics and management, so that the personnel is able to fully capture the country’s current situation and pro-actively monitor the country’s accession process;
- Installation of the treaty management system (LegaCarta) in the Ministries & institutions;
- Comprehensive analysis of the country’s current status regarding all international trade treaties, including ratifications updated on a monthly basis, full text and explanatory notes of all treaties ; the monthly updated country situation analysis is available on a click;
- A Planning strategy and cost/benefit analysis on acceding to a number of treaties in the short and long term, taking into account the country’s priorities.
- Once this information is at hand and is understood, policymakers have a better grasp on policy issues related to the application or non-application of multilateral trade conventions in their country. With the support of ITC, some countries have already made substantial progress in designing and implementing roadmaps for enhancing their legal environment by planning and prioritizing international trade treaties accession.