Turkmenistan continues large-scale, coordinated training of national personnel to ensure the country's effective accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). As part of the joint project "Turkmenistan: Trade Sustainability and Integration," implemented with the support of the International Trade Center (ITC), a specialized two-day online course was organized for leading specialists from the Ministry of Finance and Economy, as well as faculty and students of the Academy of Civil Service under the President of Turkmenistan, on May 25-26. The program's keynote speaker was Peter van den Bosch, a recognized global authority on international economic law and professor at Xi'an Jiaotong University.
The intensive course program is carefully tailored to the strategic objectives facing the National Negotiation Group of Turkmenistan. During interactive sessions, participants conducted an in-depth analysis of key trends and challenges in global trade, exploring the mandate, history, and basic mechanisms of the WTO, including the specifics of the commercial dispute settlement system and trade policy review. Particular practical emphasis was placed on a detailed analysis of fundamental WTO rules, including the principles of most-favored-nation treatment, national treatment, and the legal and economic nuances of ensuring accession of foreign goods and services to domestic markets.
ITC experts dedicated a separate, comprehensive section of the educational program to the process of joining the organization. Turkmen specialists were thoroughly familiarized with all stages of the multilateral negotiation process, consolidating their knowledge through practical case studies and modeling hypothetical changes in trade policy.
Conducting such authoritative seminars allows for the rapid development of the expert potential of civil servants and the formation of a strong intellectual base necessary for Turkmenistan's successful integration into the global economic system and the defense of national interests in international trading platforms.
