The FAO regional workshop on the WTO instruments in the interests of agribusiness brought together agribusiness representatives and agricultural trade experts from the post-soviet countries to enhance the understanding of WTO instruments and to support broader capacity development in this area. The guide “How to use WTO instruments in the interests of agribusiness” was launched. Participants were acquainted with WTO instruments that would be useful for facilitating business development on domestic and foreign agrifood markets. In this regard, special focus was paid to the importance of the WTO transparency principle.

The workshop presentations covered the following issues: the WTO Agreement on Agriculture; the WTO transparency system, including notification obligation and access; practical advice to agribusiness on resolving agricultural trade issues and disputes through the WTO; practice of application of SPS Measures in the process of national legislation approximation for the purpose of export diversification, and the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement.

Furthermore, the regional workshop also launched an export promotion guide prepared by the International Trade Centre (ITC, Geneva, Switzerland) in collaboration with FAO. The launch of the FAO-ITC guide introduced the Alliances for Action (A4A) approach and enhanced the participants’ understanding of different export promotion strategies, with emphasis placed on outlining possibilities for new market access with respect to agricultural products. The  side event (12 September 2018) further deepened the understanding of the A4A approach and set out specific priority actions on how to turn market opportunities into real-life success stories. The participants of the side event, mainly from the private sector and farmer associations, have provided relevant feedback on the content of the guide.