Preparing for Multilateral Trade Negotiation

1
Session III

• Preparing for Multilateral Trade Negotiation

2
Preparing

• What does it really entail?

3
Preparing for Trade Negotiations
Amount of time allocated to collecting information
Preparation
time
4
Preparing for whats on and at the conference
table
5
1. Do you know what its all about?
Collective purpose?
6
2. Do you know yourself?
7
2. Do you know yourself?
Who are you? Ministry? Government? Group rep?
Country purpose
Individual purpose
8
2. Do you know yourself?
1. What is your objective (country purpose,
individual purpose)? 2. What are your
interests? 3. What is your strategy? 4. What are
your proposals? Options? 5. Do your proposals
reflect your short - long-term interests?
9
3. Do you know the other (s)?
?
10
3. Do you know the other (s)?
Which actor or actors will likely play a
dominating role in the negotiations? What role
will it or they play? Where do you situate
yourself vis à vis that (those) actor
(s)? like-minded? opponent?
11
3. Do you know the other(s)?
1. What is their objective (tangible and
intangible)? 2. What is their strategy? 3. What
are their interests? 4. What are their
proposals? Options? 5. Do their proposals reflect
their short - long-term interests?
12
and, how well do they know you?
13
Integrative Tactics/Techniques
The key is accessing and managing information.
14

• Reviewing the Process and Information Generation
• Get the information (import and export data,
  economic studies, industrial surveys,
  consultations)
• Review and analyze it
• Identify knowledge gaps
• Fill knowledge gaps
• Contribute to joint knowledge and joint
  information generation
• Submit and share information
• Access Pre-session conference documents

15
(No Transcript)
16
(No Transcript)
17
Knowing the other
Indirect Assessment. Determine what information
your partner used to set its walk away point and
understand how it interpreted that information
? Identifying precedents, analyzing parallel
negotiations, making observations, consulting
their constituencies, consulting documents,
publications, white papers, expert consultations.
18
Analyzing the other(2)
Direct Assessment Identify the value of the
outcome and walker away points of your partner
through direct communication and active
listeningprior to and during the negotiation
process.
19
How ?
Three Rules to Successful Multilateral
Negotiations and Diplomacy

• 1. Consult
• 2. Consult
• 3. Consult

Ron Walker 2005
20
Know and be able to differentiate among different
types of interests
Substantive
Process Procedure Relationships Principles
how to
rules
those special friends
ethical or right
See Lax and Sebenius, 1986.
21
Define your interests broadly
Intrinsic Instrumental
? Where favourable terms of settlement on the
issue are independent of subsequent dealings
? Where favourable terms of settlement on an
issue are valued because of their effect on
subsequent dealings.
See Lax and Sebenius, 1986.
22
Why are interests so important?
They represent the basis for what you care about
in a negotiation.
If interests are not met, then agreement is not
likely to result from the negotiations.
See Lax and Sebenius, 1986.
23
Set your objectives

• What is it that you want to achieve?

Interests
Objectives

• Beneath issues
• Largely static

• Beneath issues
• But less static than interests

• Examples
• Sustainable population of elephants or uphold
  right to cull elephants
• Providing adequate health care to combat
  diseases

• Examples
• Do not list African elephant on CITES Appendix
  1
• Amend WTO TRIPS Agreement to permit export of
  generic drugs under compulsory licenses

24
Know whats on the agenda?
? What issues will be subject to negotiation
? ? What is at stake with the issues?
Market access ? Access to essential medicines
? Fair and equitable benefit sharing of genetic
resources ?
25
Issues in negotiation ...
? Substance the issues, items or questions
26
Issues in negotiation
but also ? ground rules, procedures, underlying
technical and legal issues, etc.
27
Intangibles ...

• Negotiator personality or prestige
• Emotional characteristics
• Physical space
• Time
• Hidden values

28
Understand the impact of the issue
trade policy issue
Geza Feketekuty
29
Understand the impact of the issue
Access to essential medicines
Geza Feketekuty
30
Know whats on the agenda?

• What options/variations exist for each issue
  under negotiation?

Issue (e.g. tariff on X)
? Option a () ? Option b ? Option c
31
Prioritize
Identify the bargaining set that meet your
fundamental interests, and assign relative
importance values.
item 1
item 2
item 3
item 4
item 5
item 6
item 7
item 8
item 9
item 10
See Lax and Sebenius, 1986.
32
And bundle and unbundle
item 1
Issue 1
item 2
item 3
item 4
item 5
item 4a
item 6
item 4b
item 7
item 4c
item 8
item 9
item 10
See Lax and Sebenius, 1986.
33
Preparing for Negotiation
Itemize and Prioritize Issues

• Identify the negotiation set ? Itemize all
  issues likely to be subject to negotiation (for
  you and the others)
• Be careful to unbundle issues that may be
  aggregated.
• Prioritize the issues in terms of relative
  importance. (What issue is the most important for
  you to meet your objectives, the second most
  important, third, fourth, fifth, etc.)
• Assign relative importance weights.
• Assess the other negotiators preferences.
• Identify options for linkage and tradeoffs
  between your preferences and your counterparts.

34
Formulate proposals
that reflect your interests and priorities !

• the position or point at which you would achieve
  your most favorable agreement for each issue
• the position or point at which you would no
  longer benefit from a negotiated agreement
  (resistance point)
• a realistic proposal given the other partys
  interests
• your opening proposal or offer

35
Preparing for whats away from the conference
table
Your constituency Your alternatives
36
Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement
Your BATNA is your best option in the event that
you do not reach an agreement.
But its not a negotiated option its an
alternative outside the negotiation.
? Make it legitimate ? Keep it up-dated and
relevant to your interests.
37
Develop a negotiating strategy
Whats your plan to develop support for your
vision of the negotiated outcome?
Coalition?
Information?
Techniques?
Argumentation?
Media?
38
(No Transcript)
39
(No Transcript)
40

• Failing to prepare is
• preparing to fail.

don't forget
-- Benjamin Franklin
41
Session III (cont)

• Inter-ministerial Coordination in Negotiation
  Planning and Preparation

42
The need for coordination

• Respond to increasingly interconnected issues on
  the policymaking agenda
• Increase importance of crosscutting issues
• Importance of insuring that all interests in
  negotiation are identified and met
• Facilitates defining a negotiation set of issues
  that is comprehensive and that responds to
  fundamental interests
• Ensure multidisciplinary perspectives in
  exploring entire dimensions to issues, thereby
  having a more complete pool of information and
• Increasingly, negotiation delegations require
  technical, legal and process specialists to
  perform effectively.

43
refugees
Sustainable development
trade
health
environ- ment
employ- ment
security
finance
development
UNITAR
44
refugees
trade
health
environ- ment
employ- ment
security
finance
development
UNITAR
45
Identify and consult with concerned stakeholders
Concerned stakeholders inside of government
Key stakeholders at other levels of government?
Other interested stakeholders, including private
interests and NGOs
46
Identify and consult with concerned stakeholders
(2)
And insure that you have appropriate mechanisms
and procedures in place to manage the
consultation process and incorporate results into
the negotiating strategy!
Existing structure ?
Ad-hoc task force ?
47
What do we mean by effective ministerial
coordination in negotiation preparation and
planning?
Vertical coordination between the technical and
senior policy-making levels
Senior Policy Level
Problems 1) Middle management in many
countries is missing, and 2) preparations between
the technical and senior policy levels are
unconnected.
Technical / Functional Level
48
What is effective inter-ministerial coordination
in negotiation preparation and planning?
? Horizontal coordination across government
ministries and agencies
49
effective horizontal and vertical coordination
50
effective horizontal and vertical coordination
Building and managing teams
Senior Level

• Task what is the objective of the delegation?
• Size and Composition Do delegates have a
  stake?
• Roles of Team Members
• Relationships
• Commitment

Technical / Functional Level
51
Challenges in Managing Coordinating Structures in
Negotiation Preparation and Planning

• Coordination dilemmas and problems of collective
  action considerable negotiation among
  stakeholders.

52
Challenges in Managing Coordinating Structures in
Negotiation Preparation and Planning

• Avoiding over-coordination and competing roles.

horizontally
vertically
53
Challenges in Managing Coordinating Structures in
Negotiation Preparation and Planning
There is a need to

• Maximize incentives to cooperate
• Produce clear roles
• Engage in creative thinking processes that
  extends beyond lowest common denominator
  policy-making
• Maintain group continuity

Management
Lateral Leadership
54
Coordination Lessons Learned

• If not managed, coordination may easily become
  overbearing leading to fatigue and diminishing
  returns
• Coordination requires additional time
• Coordination requires a strong lead agency
• Coordination requires an unequivocal buy-in by
  those stakeholders concerned and affected by a
  policy decision
• Coordination requires political will
• Coordination should be demand-driven and
• Coordination requires a culture for heterogeneous
  decision-making.

55
Coordination Lessons Learned

• Coordinating structures often require a neutral
  facilitator to pool information and manage the
  process
• Whats needed is more effective coordination and
  less coordination mechanisms.
• Coordination structures are a relatively new
  phenomenon of governance. Government officials
  are still adjusting since coordination requires
  flatter structures of governance as opposed to
  hierarchical administrations.