ITPU focus of activity

The ITPU has developed considerable expertise and experience in five principle areas:

• Understanding trade agreements, their interrelationship, and their implications in the international and domestic context
• Their implications for civil society, the business community and wider global debates
• The political and organisational requirements arising out of these agreements, particularly their implications for federal systems, and for transition and developing countries
• How the policy interface between national governments and their regional and multilateral trading partners are managed
• Evaluating how countries manage the appropriate balance between trade agreements and other policy priorities, both national and international

In its six years of functioning the ITPU has established a reputation for research, policy analysis, consultancy and capacity-building work in all the areas described above. It has received support and cooperation in its programmes and events from the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Department for International Development (DFID), the Commonwealth Secretariat, Enterprise LSE Limited (ELSE), and the European Union.

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