International Trade Forum

Leather is one of the world s most widely traded commodities. The trade in leather and leather products - worth more than US$ 60 billion per year - is predicted to grow. The African leather sector is bursting with potential, but there is a wide gap between...

ITCs long, pragmatic experience in working with developing country exporters has been recognized by partners and users of its services.Olof Karsegard, now head of the ITC association of former staff members, recalls, "My first job in ITC was in Kenya...

Effective purchasing and supply chain management is critical to competitiveness and export performance. It accounts for some 60% to 70% of a company's costs. ITCs training initiative, Buying into Competitiveness, helps to meet firms' need to develop...

The coffee market is oversupplied, with the price of coffee at its lowest in a century. Over the years, ITC has supported several projects and initiatives to help coffee producers. One of the most innovative projects was the world's first Internet coffee...

Competition means conflict, but the courts are rarely the best way to settle disputes in business. Trials can be expensive, lengthy and sometimes embarrassingly public. Hence the rise in arbitration and mediation centres. ITC sees that by operating as...

Improving a country's export performance requires much more than just winning more foreign contracts. Over the past six years, many government officials and private business leaders in developing countries and transition economies have come to understand...

From modest beginnings, ITC has strengthened and diversified its services to meet the changing trade development needs of developing and transition economies. A close relationship with the business sector helped ITC spot issues that firms need to trade...

High-quality packaging is becoming a key to successful competition in the most lucrative developed markets, ITC is spreading both the message and the means for small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) worldwide to embrace better packaging. ITC's work...

With this publication, ITC brings a message of challenge, and of hope. The immense challenge is to bridge the gap between rich and poor. The hope is to build upon practices that work, in the area of trade development, and take action on a broader scale.In...

Sheer, unforgettable magic. With house music setting a hypnotic pulse, psychedelic lighting injecting an edge and giant screens capturing the allure of the catwalk, a national fashion event that would not have been out of place in Paris, New York or...

Providing relief supplies is big business. Donors and international aid agencies spend billions of dollars annually. The door to the aid market, traditionally considered complex and inaccessible, has been all but closed to countries in Africa, for example....

"For also knowledge itself," wrote English philosopher-statesman Francis Bacon in 1597, "is power."In March 2004, Zambia's Deputy Commerce Minister Geoffrey Samukonga had a practical take on how knowledge brings power. "Unless you know what are the opportunities,...

On separate occasions, the heads of UNCTAD and WTO met with ITC staff to celebrate ITCs 40th anniversary. They took the opportunity to speak of their appreciation for ITC's role, achievements and future plans.MAKING GOOD IDEAS WORKUNCTAD's secretary-General,...