What is TINA
ESCAP’s Trade Intelligence and Negotiation Adviser (TINA – https://tina.trade) is an online tool designed to assist trade policymakers and researchers in carrying out analytical tasks commonly conducted as part of trade agreement negotiations. Many of the intense tasks undertaken for trade agreement negotiations require specialized analytical and data management skills and are time-consuming when performed manually. TINA automates many of such tasks, enabling countries with limited resources to benefit from the same level of preparation as those afforded by larger economies. It was developed in close consultation with current and former members of trade negotiation teams throughout the Asia-Pacific region, using state of the art methodologies and technologies.
Since its inception in 2018, TINA has assisted several countries in the region. For example, the at the request of the Government of Bangladesh, TINA was used to help them with the Bangladesh-India trade agreement feasibility study; for the Government of India – studying the potential effects of India-EU/India-UK trade agreements; and for the Government of Mongolia – the potential of the Mongolia-Republic of Korea trade agreement.
Bangladesh, Cambodia and Vanuatu have also benefitted from using an additional key feature of TINA which evaluates the trade impacts of least developed country status graduation and resulting partial withdrawal of preferences by major trading partners such as the European Union, the United States, China and India. This feature is significant as it identifies sectors and markets most likely to be impacted, thus drawing policymakers’ attention to accord higher prioritization.
About this e-course
This course will provide the participants with the theoretical understanding of TINA’s algorithms, as well as hands-on examples and guided exercises. Those who completed the course will be able to independently come up with offensive/defensive interests, gauge competitiveness of individual commodities and examine trends, run partial equilibrium simulations of bilateral tariff liberalization and LDC graduation.
This is the first in series of hands-on TINA workshops. Those who pass the final quiz will obtain an e-certificate, and will be invited to further trainings on other modules, with the potential of obtaining “trainer-of-trainers” certification after in-person workshop at a future date.