Trade Policy Development - ILO

This package of services aims to strengthen the employment dimension in policies and programmes related to international trade with better analysis, more coherent policy-making, and enhanced programmes that are designed to encourage employment creation and upgrading. ETE supports governments, the social partners and sectoral representatives in capitalizing on economic activities that are (potentially) competitive in international trade for raising the number of workers who are productively employed and increasing decent work opportunities. The technical assistance offered by ETE has the following three components:

1) To develop knowledge tools that can support the formulation of coherent trade, sectoral and labour-market policies based on sound data and diagnosis with the involvement of the social partners and sectoral representatives.

• Existing national policy priorities for trade and employment are identified and assessed with regard to national development objectives.

• The state of relevant national statistical data, availability of local experts, and applicability of ETE methodology and tools are assessed.

• ETE methodology and tools are adapted and implemented to produce assessment reports on various topics related to trade-oriented employment that are identified as relevant to national policy priorities. These assessments of trade-oriented employment could be by sector (agriculture, manufacturing and services) or of trade agreements, the informal economy, women’s employment, youth employment, etc.

2) To enable the design of effective and coherent trade, sectoral and labour-market policies that maximize employment-related opportunities created by trade and minimize the adjustment costs of trade-induced economic restructuring.

• The needs and capacities to engage in discussions on trade, sectoral and labour market policies of representatives from governments and social partners are assessed.

• Knowledge-sharing seminars and technical-training workshops are conducted according to the different needs and capacities of representatives from governments, the social partners and sectoral associations.

• An institutional platform is established or activated within existing structures for representatives of relevant ministries, social partners and sectors to engage in policy discussions on the effects of international trade on employment and to formulate and recommend more effective, coherent and inclusive policies.

3) To implement programmes at the sectoral level to better integrate SMEs into export supply chains and align workers' skills with sectoral strategies for export growth in order to expand opportunities for the creation of productive employment.

• Trade and Value Chains in Employment-Rich Activities (TRAVERA) utilizes the ILO’s Value Chain Development Approach in analyzing export supply chains and their potential for employment creation and upgrading. TRAVERA is applied at the sectoral level in partner countries. In particular, TRAVERA helps small- and medium- sized enterprises to identify and exploit export market and export supply chain opportunities that have the potential to create quality jobs. The aim is to strengthen the most relevant aspects of the supply chain so that companies can develop and improve their own competitiveness, while helping their employees to work in high productivity and decent working conditions.

For more information: www.ilo/org/eutrade