Capacity Building Workshop: Trade and Trade Policy Analysis for the Post COVID-19 Recovery

Mr. Yann Duval is currently Chief of Trade Policy and Facilitation at ESCAP, the regional branch of the United Nations Secretariat for Asia and the Pacific.

Over the past 15 years, Mr. Duval has conducted research and delivered technical assistance and advisory services on trade policy and facilitation throughout Asia and the Pacific, including on the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement. He spearheaded the development of the Asia-Pacific Research and Training Network on Trade (ARTNeT), as well as the creation of the ESCAP-World Bank Trade Cost Database and the UN Global Survey on Trade Facilitation and Paperless Trade Implementation. Mr. Duval was also instrumental in the development of the United Nations Network of Experts for Paperless Trade and Transport in Asia and the Pacific (UNNExT) and the negotiation of a new intergovernmental Framework Agreement on Facilitation of Cross-Border Paperless Trade in Asia and the Pacific, adopted as a UN treaty in 2016.

Prior to joining the UN, He held faculty positions at the Asian Institute of Technology and Washington State University, USA.

Ms. Witada Anukoonwattaka is a core researcher for the division, in particular the Trade Policy and Facilitation Section, and leading the DigiSRII 1.0 project of ESCAP. Her research areas cover economic impacts of trade and investment policies as well as contemporary trade  issues of Asia-Pacific countries including trade tensions, global value chains, regional integration, services and digital-trade policies, and trade policies to support sustainable development.  She has also run and served as a resource person for capacity-building programmes, particularly those related to evidence-based policymaking and research. Before joining ESCAP, she was a lecturer of the Faculty of Economics at Thammasat University, Thailand, and also worked  in the advisory team of Thailand’s minister of industry, foreign affairs, and commissioner of Thailand’s National Telecommunications Commission. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Melbourne, Australia. 

Javier López González is a Senior Economist at the Trade and Agriculture Directorate of the OECD. His recent work focuses on issues related to trade in the digital era: developing frameworks for the analysis of digital trade, including in the context of exploring what market openness means in the 21st century; investigating regulatory approaches to cross-border data flows; and identifying potential economic costs and benefits of digital trade. He has previously worked on the drivers and implications of participation in global value chains. Javier holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Sussex.

Irene Olivan Garcia is a trade policy analyst at the Trade in Services Division of the OECD. Her work focuses on analysing policy trends affecting services trade in particular in the digital era. She assists in managing the annual update of the OECD’s Services Trade Restrictiveness Index (STRI) as well as the Digital STRI. Irene is a lawyer and previously worked in a law firm on data protection, intellectual property and IT law issues.

Janos Ferencz is a trade policy analyst at the Trade in Services Division of the OECD. He works on analysing policy trends affecting services trade globally using the OECD’s Services Trade Restrictiveness Index (STRI), and manages the annual update of the STRI regulatory database and indices. Additionally, Janos’ work covers digital trade focusing on lowering trade barriers for digitally enabled services. He developed the OECD Digital STRI tool, and contributed to analysis on digital trade and market openness, cross-border data flows, and the trade implications of new digital technologies such as artificial intelligence. Janos is a jurist with background in international trade law.

Mr. Biswajit Nag is a Professor of Economics at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), New Delhi. Involved in empirical economic research for more than two decades, he also has teaching experience in Germany, Italy, Tanzania and Ukraine. He has been a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of Developing Economies (IDE), Japan (2018-19). Earlier, he served the Poverty and Development Division of the UN-ESCAP, Bangkok (2003-04). He was also Chair Professor of India Studies in Ukraine sponsored by Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) in Jan-Feb 2014.

Currently, he is one of the advisors on Global Value Chain at Asia-Pacific Research and Training Network (ARTNet) and advisory board member of UN-ESCAP’s E-learning courses on Trade and SDGs. He is also one of the advisory members to Infinite Sum Modelling, a US based Research Company and Deft Advisory and Research Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi. Prof Nag has authored two books, edited two and wrote number of research papers in peer reviewed journals. He has completed number of projects for Government of India, international agencies (UN, IFC/World Bank, WTO, EU, JICA, DFID, and ADB etc.) and private sector. Prof Nag is currently specialising in Global Value Chain, Trade & Technology and Implication of Trade on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He teaches International Economics, Trade Analytics, Advance topics in Macroeconomics and Econometrics.

Anurag Agarwal is a consultant at the Asian Development Bank where he is involved in research related to digital economy and global value chains. He holds an MA degree in Economics from Soka University, Japan, with specialization in International Business. Anurag has previously worked as a financial and actuarial analyst.

Jahm Mae E. Guinto is a consultant at the Asian Development Bank. She holds an MA degree in Economics from the University of the Philippines. Currently, she is involved in research related to the digital economy, global value chains, and taxation.