Box 2 The Trade Point Programme

The Trade Point strategy and the most recent evaluation of Trade Points activities are covered in greater detail in a separate document, the Trade Point Review.

Box 7 The Global Trade Point Network (GTPNet)

2. Legal dimensions of the Trade Point programme

The availability of the latest Trade Point survey on the Internet was announced, and an advance copy of the Trade Point Review was distributed.

(c) A second practical illustration the Trade Point Programme

34. Delegations also raised the question of the legal protection of the Trade Point logo, a Trade Point federation and work done on security of information.

(c) Legal protection of the quot Trade Point quot , quot Global Trade Point Network (GTPNet) quot , and quot Electronic Trading Opportunities (ETO) quot names and logos

Defined as such, the quot Trade Point quot product is clearly differentiated from trade information systems.

2. Legal dimensions of the Trade Point programme.. 57 63

If a Trade Point is operational in a country, the degree to which that Trade Point offers trade facilitation services will be an indicator of the current possibilities for full electronic trading in that country.

Confusion may arise to the question which Trade Point falls under UNCTAD s programme and which does not which would discredit the Trade Point concept and endanger the programme.

It has also sponsored the Global Trade Point Network, which applies modern information technology in trade promotion.

Read more from the What Now for Global Trade? Focal Point

Read more from the What Now for Global Trade? Focal Point

(c) Small and medium sized enterprise trade competitiveness the training of operational staff for Trade Points, as well as Trade Point managers and users

The next step in UNCTAD s Trade Point strategy then became to move from this pre transactional role of Trade Points to a fully transactional role, which would turn the Trade Point network into the first global instrument for electronic commerce.

NEPAD officially recognizes the Trade Point Programme as an important tool for development.

(b) Use of the Trade Point network to deliver the elements mentioned above.

(ii) Integration of a strong training component in Trade Point activities and projects

Another area of cooperation between the Trade Point programme and ITC is training.

In close cooperation with the International Trade Center, this will be done in particular through the Global Trade Point Network (GTPNet).

It has become of increasing importance that the name Trade Point is legally protected worldwide, together with the name and logo of the Global Trade Point Network (GTPNet) and the Electronic Trading Opportunities (ETOs).

For instance, before it started to operate its own server, Trade Point Harare used the Internet Incubator to upload not only Trade Point information, but also an entire searchable database on the GTPNet server.

Finally, the Trade Point was also expected to contribute to regional and international cooperation.

China had supported UNISTE in Columbus and continued to support the Trade Point programme.

Through its Trade Point programme, UNCTAD can contribute to disseminating and promoting such work.

Collaboration in the area of trade efficiency was facilitated by the initial location of UNCTAD s Trade Point Development Centre (UNTPDC) in Bangkok.

With the success of the Trade Point concept, third parties become interested in setting up offices using the same name without any consultation with UNCTAD or any member of the Trade Point network and not respecting the set of rules established for Trade Points.

The objectives of the Trade Point were to serve as a facilitation centre for international trade, a source of trade information and a centre for help and advice.

2. In this context, the Commission requested the secretariat to provide an evaluation of the Trade Point Programme including the extent of the inter operability of Trade Points, to prepare an information note on the basis of a cost benefit analysis of practical ways and means to ensure the legal protection of the Trade Point and Global Trade Point network names and logos and to prepare an interim report on which a trade efficiency assessment exercise could be organized.

Data on mergers and acquisitions (M As) point to South South trade through commercial presence.

It was systematized and generalized to the point of being called the black slave trade .

This is why, on the occasion of the United Nations International Symposium on Trade Efficiency (UNISTE, Columbus, October 1994), it was decided to move on to the second stage of the Trade Point programme by launching the Global Trade Point Network (GTPNet), which rapidly emerged as the largest global network for pre transactional trade information.

In 1994, the United Nations International Symposium on Trade Efficiency (UNISTE) launched the second phase aimed at connecting Trade Points worldwide to the Global Trade Point Network (see box 7).

31. UNCTAD also promotes trade through its Global Trade Point Network, which is a tool for the integration of SMEs into the global economy.

The point had also been made repeatedly that trade and the environment must be mutually supportive.

Senegal was thus committed to cooperating closely with UNCTAD in carrying out its Trade Point programme.

For example, the WTCA has worked in close cooperation with UNCTAD apos s trade point initiative to establish trade points within world trade centres and to organize cooperative programmes in the fields of trade education and information.

A project on increasing the participation of Romanian SMEs in international trade through the establishment of a trade point in Bucharest was launched in 1997.

7. The Commission requests the secretariat to produce an information note on the basis of a cost benefit analysis of practical ways and means to ensure the legal protection of the Trade Point and Global Trade Point Network names and logos.

In addition, some Trade Point directors have been assisting other Trade Points especially in the initial phase, and they have carried out missions to other Trade Points to advise them on several subjects.

Trade Points and trade facilitation mechanisms had long been available in the services infrastructure of developed countries, and it was developing countries who should be the main beneficiaries of new Trade Point programmes.

The private sector, in particular Trade Point customers, could also contribute to the financing of the assessment.

These are crucial aspects of a trade liberalization agenda from the point of view of these countries.