Background

ERIA (Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia) and UNCTAD have embarked on a joint journey to collect NTMs in ASEAN countries, including Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam, which is now in its finalization stage.

The purpose of the training in Yogyakarta is to bring together government officials from ten ASEAN countries and conduct intensive training on the Identification, Collection and Classification of NTMs, including the presentation of NTMs data of ASEAN countries in I-TIP database. At the end of the training the government officials will take the test and will be granted with UNCTAD/ERIA certificates accordingly.

The understanding on classification and identification of NTMs will greatly assist policymakers, researchers and negotiators in the region, especially in the context of the ASEAN Economic Community's goal of regional economic integration and many countries in the region being a part of TPP negotiations.